NY Times Guest Essay on Measles Took My Daughter
A real story about a deadly disease.
It’s an essay that no one should have to write.
An essay about the death of a child from a vaccine-preventable disease.
NY Times Guest Essay on Measles Took My Daughter
And yet, here we are…
Rebecca Archer’s daughter Renae got sick with measles in 2013 in Manchester, England.
“When my daughter Renae, my firstborn, was 5 months old she spiked a fever. By that evening, she was having trouble breathing — the color was gone from her face and I could see her skin tugging in around her ribs. At the hospital the doctors noted the red spots on her body and diagnosed her with measles.”
Measles Took My Daughter. This Is What I Want Everyone to Know.
She was too young to be vaccinated and wasn’t protected, as the maternal antibodies she had gotten were wearing off and there was a breakdown in herd immunity in her community.
Fortunately though, she recovered!
“What I didn’t know was that measles can cause long-term complications. A child can seem fine while the virus slowly replicates in her brain, poised to exact a terrible toll years later.”
Measles Took My Daughter. This Is What I Want Everyone to Know.
She recovered… until later, when she developed a late complication of measles.
“It was in the spring and summer of 2023, when Renae was 10, and I was pregnant with my fourth child, that we got the first hints that something might be wrong.”
Measles Took My Daughter. This Is What I Want Everyone to Know.
That’s when her personality began to change.
And she began to have seizures.
It got so bad that as she kept getting worse, that she eventually stopped eating and drinking and ended up on a ventilator in the ICU.
“We got the diagnosis when one of the tests of her spinal fluid had come back from London. Renae had subacute sclerosing panencephalitis, a rare complication of measles. The doctors told me it was fatal, and there was nothing else they could do.”
Measles Took My Daughter. This Is What I Want Everyone to Know.
Soon, Renae’s family had to watch her die, just before she was going to turn 11 years old because someone exposed her to measles.
Renae had SSPE.
If you are going to skip or delay getting vaccinated or getting your kids vaccinated, you should read these stories from these parents. There are many more of them than there should be.