Tracey from Meath describes how life has changed for her daughter Lara in the 20 months since she was vaccinated with Gardasil. 

My name is Tracey Walsh and my daughter Lara received the gardasil vaccine in Oct 2013. She has gone from a sporty fun loving teenager who had not been to a doctor since she was 4, to a teenager who is in and out of hospital for tests and treatments. She had to give up all sports which was very difficult.
   
The vaccine has left Lara with Idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP) - extremely low blood platelets.  She has had to endure surgery, bone marrow biopsy and aspiration, countless rounds of steroids and their horrible side effects, transfusions of IVIG (intravenous immune globulin) and lastly, weekly treatment for 4 weeks with a drug used normally for cancer patients.  We have to carry rescue steroids with us in case she drops her levels. 

She has to be careful not to get a bang on the head or stomach as this could lead to internal bleeding that could not be stopped.  What teenager should have to call her mother frightened that she might die because someone in school banged her head at the locker?  Lara was not the only one reported  to Temple St with ITP after inoculation with Gardasil.  The only thing I would say is that I was very lucky with our consultant in Temple Street. I did not have to ask her to report the adverse reaction - she did it herself and told me afterwards. I imagine the 3 ITP cases reported that week were reported by her. Not all doctors are denying the probability that gardasil caused the girls' illnesses.

It now looks like she will have ITP for life.  Her periods are so heavy she has to take medication every month to try and lighten them but it is still a horrific experience for her. We have missed family holidays as her platelets dropped and she cannot travel by plane.  This is also difficult as my husband lives and works abroad and Lara's elderly grandparents don't get to see us. We live everyday checking for signs of a drop.   Options at this point are to try more of the cancer drug, or have her spleen  removed, requiring her to be on medication for the rest of her life but not guaranteed  to work. 

She lived for horse riding but now we can't even bring her to the yard.  She suffers terribly from the results of gardasil and we do not know how this will effect her in the future.  Any cut for Lara is serious.  She caught her finger in the car door last year and damaged her nail -  she had to have a small operation to fix it and had to have a transfusion to increase her platelets.   What if she had a serious accident - would there be time to transfuse?  Even going to the dentist is serious. A nose bleed  and we need to get her to hospital.  Will she be able to have children in the future?  We live in Meath and a local TD Regina Doherty asked questions in the Dail about the vaccine but the minister's reply were very vague.  There are many girls with long term effects.  This vaccine needs to be stopped.

Tracey Walsh

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