2 Year-Old Unvaccinated Toddler With 105F Gets Rescued From Anti-Vaxx Parents By A SWAT Team
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Regular readers of Bored Panda are well familiar with our stance on vaccinations by now – while we respect your rights and freedom to choose, endangering others by ignoring scientific evidence in favor of myths and quackery is not on. With cases of measles on the rise in North America and Europe because of people neglecting to vaccinate their children, despite overwhelming evidence of the safety and efficacy of the vaccine, it seems that some have decided that enough is enough.
In scenes reminiscent of a drug or anti-terrorist raid, police in Chandler, Arizona kicked down the door of a house to look for a 2-year-old boy, who had reportedly come down with a dangerously high fever. The boy was unvaccinated, and his mother was ignoring the pleas of doctors to take him to the emergency room. She was afraid of getting into trouble for not vaccinating her child. When health officials visited the house to do a welfare check the father allegedly refused them entry, saying that the fever had passed and the boy was now fine. This prompted the police to take the matter into their own hands.
With the child’s temperature having shown over 105 degrees at an earlier visit to a clinic at the Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine, the parents had been told by doctors to take the boy to the emergency room immediately, fearing a case of meningitis. When they didn’t show up, the case was reported to the authorities. When they eventually got into the house, they found two other children, ages 6 and 4, who were also showing signs of sickness. All three children were immediately taken to the hospital and afterward placed in foster care. The 2-year-old was eventually diagnosed with a respiratory virus.
This is a pretty extreme example of authorities deciding to override parents when it comes to matters of their child’s health. In these scary times of unvaccinated children possibly infecting those around them, it has started an important discussion about individual liberties, the rights of parents and the responsibility to protect others.
The father was tearful during the ensuing court case, believing they had been treated like criminals and demanding the return of their children. He finds support from Arizona state Rep. Kelly Townsend, pictured below, who is disturbed by the case. “It was brought to my attention that these parents may have been targeted by the medical community because they hadn’t vaccinated their children,” she told AZcentral, adding that parents who don’t vaccinate their children because of medical concerns aren’t criminals and shouldn’t be treated as such. She believes that the use of a SWAT team to take the children away from their parents is “not the country that I recognize,” and has previously referred to mandatory measles vaccines as “communist”
“What about parents’ rights to decide what’s best for their child?” Townsend said. “Parents felt the child was fine. Next thing we know, the Gestapo is at their door.”
What do you think? Should authorities be allowed to behave in this manner if they feel that a child is in danger? Or are parents within their rights to refuse treatment? Let us know what you think in the comments!
Here’s what people had to say about the incident
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“What about parents’ rights to decide what’s best for their child?” Townsend said. Well, when it comes to a very sick child the parent doesn't know best, doctors do. This was a terrible risk to take with such a small child and they don't have the right to withhold essential medical care - and that should include vaccinations.
My friends daughter ended up getting sick because of a child whose parent's did not vaccinate. Her daughters fever shot up so high, the girl started to have seizures. She was rushed to the hospital and was put on a respirator. They could not get her to wake up. After the anti-seizure medication finally showed signs of working, she woke up, but will now be confined to a wheelchair and be dependent on other people for her care for the rest of your life. Now can you imagine how much her mother would like to ring the neck of the anti-vaxxer parents that thought they didn't need to immunize their children?
Oh my gosh, Carol, that is heartbreaking :( Anti-vaxxers SHOULD be considered criminals. I'm so sorry that this happened :(
That is so terribly sad, poor girl. I do get so very fed up with this idea that parents 'know best' all the time. When doctors have sick children in hospital they aren't supposed to treat them because emotions cloud logical thinking. Parents may know their child best but that will never make them a medical professional and they should listen to people who are. Vaccinations need to be a legal requirement. If there wasn't the science there to prove that vaccinations work then maybe it could be a choice - but the science IS there, published and in the public domain. This stupid anti-vaxx movement is killing people and it needs stopping.
The worst is the ones who then say it’s God’s will. Can’t possibly be their fault that they let their child die or become disabled. 😡
Parents are not Doctors. Many parents are ignorant about basic science. Many parents will google anything that supports their misguided ideas. Parents will put their children at risk and brag about it - just to be seen as "special". Anti-vax parents keep very quiet when their unvaccinated child is diagnosed as on the Autistic Spectrum.
When parents fail to do what is right and protects their children they deserve having their child removed to get healthcare. Vaccinate and you wouldn’t have the problem.
Exactly.
They deliberately chose to endanger the welfare of their children. A fever of 105 is almost a guarantee of brain damage, and in a child of two, could also be a death sentence. While a SWAT team may have been over-reacting, these children were in imminent danger of losing their lives as surely as if their parents had held them at gunpoint. ...///... They do not deserve to see their children ever again. Daddy can cry until the cows come home, he CHOSE to endanger his childrens’ lives.
To me, refusing to take a child to the hospital when their temperature reaches 105 is the equivalent of letting them play with a loaded gun. You are risking the health and life of that child. If a parent is not willing to do what is necessary to prevent a child from dying, the they should give up their rights as parents and allow someone more qualified to raise their kids. I just wish the SWAT team could have allowed the K9 units to chomp on the parents a little while to get the point across that they f***ed up.
Haha very funny butiagreetho
I don't think the S.W.A.T. team was overreacting, they were just mad(I guess) Edit: If the S.W.A.T teams were overreacting, we would all be dead by now.
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you forcing yourself is reason for never speaking again. you deserve to die. See I can pass judgment too mother fucker . quit with your holier than though shit or reap the rewards of fucking DEATH !!
Holy Hell. 105F is like scarlet fever territory. That kid is facing permanent neurological damage at that temperature. Kids go blind from a fever like that.
Actually - am not 100% sure if it was the same childhood disease that killed my aunt that blinded my 13 year old great aunt for 70 years. But doest it matter?? - just vaccinate. Be safe - not precious.
yeah, thats an immediate threat to life for a toddler.
“What about parents’ rights to decide what’s best for their child?” Townsend said. Well, when it comes to a very sick child the parent doesn't know best, doctors do. This was a terrible risk to take with such a small child and they don't have the right to withhold essential medical care - and that should include vaccinations.
My friends daughter ended up getting sick because of a child whose parent's did not vaccinate. Her daughters fever shot up so high, the girl started to have seizures. She was rushed to the hospital and was put on a respirator. They could not get her to wake up. After the anti-seizure medication finally showed signs of working, she woke up, but will now be confined to a wheelchair and be dependent on other people for her care for the rest of your life. Now can you imagine how much her mother would like to ring the neck of the anti-vaxxer parents that thought they didn't need to immunize their children?
Oh my gosh, Carol, that is heartbreaking :( Anti-vaxxers SHOULD be considered criminals. I'm so sorry that this happened :(
That is so terribly sad, poor girl. I do get so very fed up with this idea that parents 'know best' all the time. When doctors have sick children in hospital they aren't supposed to treat them because emotions cloud logical thinking. Parents may know their child best but that will never make them a medical professional and they should listen to people who are. Vaccinations need to be a legal requirement. If there wasn't the science there to prove that vaccinations work then maybe it could be a choice - but the science IS there, published and in the public domain. This stupid anti-vaxx movement is killing people and it needs stopping.
The worst is the ones who then say it’s God’s will. Can’t possibly be their fault that they let their child die or become disabled. 😡
Parents are not Doctors. Many parents are ignorant about basic science. Many parents will google anything that supports their misguided ideas. Parents will put their children at risk and brag about it - just to be seen as "special". Anti-vax parents keep very quiet when their unvaccinated child is diagnosed as on the Autistic Spectrum.
When parents fail to do what is right and protects their children they deserve having their child removed to get healthcare. Vaccinate and you wouldn’t have the problem.
Exactly.
They deliberately chose to endanger the welfare of their children. A fever of 105 is almost a guarantee of brain damage, and in a child of two, could also be a death sentence. While a SWAT team may have been over-reacting, these children were in imminent danger of losing their lives as surely as if their parents had held them at gunpoint. ...///... They do not deserve to see their children ever again. Daddy can cry until the cows come home, he CHOSE to endanger his childrens’ lives.
To me, refusing to take a child to the hospital when their temperature reaches 105 is the equivalent of letting them play with a loaded gun. You are risking the health and life of that child. If a parent is not willing to do what is necessary to prevent a child from dying, the they should give up their rights as parents and allow someone more qualified to raise their kids. I just wish the SWAT team could have allowed the K9 units to chomp on the parents a little while to get the point across that they f***ed up.
Haha very funny butiagreetho
I don't think the S.W.A.T. team was overreacting, they were just mad(I guess) Edit: If the S.W.A.T teams were overreacting, we would all be dead by now.
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
you forcing yourself is reason for never speaking again. you deserve to die. See I can pass judgment too mother fucker . quit with your holier than though shit or reap the rewards of fucking DEATH !!
Holy Hell. 105F is like scarlet fever territory. That kid is facing permanent neurological damage at that temperature. Kids go blind from a fever like that.
Actually - am not 100% sure if it was the same childhood disease that killed my aunt that blinded my 13 year old great aunt for 70 years. But doest it matter?? - just vaccinate. Be safe - not precious.
yeah, thats an immediate threat to life for a toddler.