Encephalitis, or brain swelling, is one of the nastier and deadlier side effects of contracting measles. Only about 1 in 1000 people who get measles develop it, and roughly 10-15% who do will die from it. Almost always, these are children.
Source: The Independent
Instead, since late January, the schoolboy has been confined to a hospital bed with measles encephalitis, a complication that causes swelling and inflammation in the brain. “He's pretty much as if he was paralyzed,” his devastated father, 41, told The Independent in a phone interview from his son’s hospital bedside.
Ethan’s parents decided not to immunize him against measles as they did with his three brothers. Three out of four of them contracted measles. Still, despite Ethan’s ordeal, his mom stands by their decision. “We’re not blaming God for this,” said 35-year-old Kristina. “Yes, it hurts, of course, it hurts. But God has chosen Ethan for a reason. God is doing something, and we're gonna glorify his name regardless.
“And we wouldn't change it any other way,” the mom continued. “If I knew this could be the outcome, I still wouldn't have given my son the vaccine.”
“Our biggest reason why we didn't do it is just with all the unnecessary stuff they add into it,” Kristina added, referring to her beliefs about the vaccine.
“With my own eyes, I have seen the damage it does to kids who are perfectly normal, and then once they get it, they're not the same anymore,” she claimed.
The Independent doesn't detail what this woman has seen "with [her] own eyes," but it hardly matters. The boy's parents knowingly put their children at risk of an almost 100% preventable disease (around 97% with two doses of the vaccine), and this was the result.
If it were up to me, they'd be charged with reckless endangerment.
