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Monday, June 29, 2009
Mothers Seek Answers About Daughters' Deaths
By Joline Gutierrez Krueger
Journal Staff Writer
Mothers Seek Answers About Daughters' Deaths
They fell suddenly and inexplicably, these healthy and wholesome and beautiful young women who had never exhibited any signs that their lives were in peril.
Santana Valdez, 18, was the first to go, dying in her sleep Aug. 31, 2007, after a quiet night of dinner and videos with her family in Albuquerque. When her mother found her in bed, her body was cold and blood was puddling from her nose.
Brishal Prichard, 18, didn't die, but there are days when death seems to hover nearby. She began having seizures in the spring 2008, often more than once a day. Her body, her brain, her stomach ache. Her hair fell out, her gums bleed, her legs bruise, her hands shake with tremors.
Megan Hild, 20, had just spoken to her mother about coming over to help with painting the family house in Belen on Nov. 15, 2008. Two hours later, her lifeless body lay curled in the shower with the water still running, bloody froth exuding from her nose and mouth.
Medical experts could not explain what had caused the startling demise of the three otherwise healthy young women. Cause of death for Santana and Megan was listed in their autopsy reports as "undetermined."
That wasn't good enough for their mothers.
"When you have a perfectly healthy daughter and you just spoke with her hours earlier, you start questioning," says Megan's mother, Karen Maynor. "How does someone like that just lay down and die?"
All three mothers — and many more across the country, they say — began searching the Internet for a common thread that could explain what had happened.
They think they have found it. Before things went bad, each of the girls was injected with Gardasil, the vaccine purported to prevent human papillomavirus, or HPV, infections that have been linked to certain forms of cervical cancer.
"There are just too many similarities for it to be nothing," Maynor says. "Why on Earth no one is looking at this is beyond me."
Gardasil is manufactured by Merck. You may recall the Gardasil "One Less" campaign that bombarded the airwaves. Or the campaign by state lawmakers in 2007 to mandate the vaccine for all fifth-grade girls that derailed when our guv vetoed the bill because the state was "not ready" for it.
(Gardasil, it should also be noted, was developed and tested in part right here at the University of New Mexico.)
Concerns over the safety of Gardasil, which reached the market in June 2006, were detailed in a report released last week by Judicial Watch, a conservative public interest group out of Washington, D.C.
The report identified 47 deaths and hundreds of life-threatening reactions the group said are associated with the Gardasil vaccine.
Twenty-eight of those deaths occurred last year.
The numbers are based on a list compiled by the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, cosponsored by the Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Megan and Santana are Nos. 38 and 39 on the list.
Merck spokeswoman Jennifer Allen argues that the numbers are not statistically significant, considering that more than 44 million doses of Gardasil have been dispensed around the globe since 2006.
"We feel very confident in our safety profile," Allen says, noting that Gardasil was approved after a decade of testing and that safety monitoring of the vaccine is ongoing.
(Allen said Merck recently added a warning about the vaccination's potential for prompting fainting spells. The company now recommends patients sit or lie down for 15 minutes after injection.)
The FDA has also consistently stated that it has found no common pattern in the deaths or severe reactions and that the benefits outweigh the risks.
The mothers aren't buying it.
"In our hearts, we know what happened," says Santana's mother, Crista Valdez. "There is nothing else it could be."
The women — who did not know each other before their daughters' ordeals — have become researchers, educators and advocates, connecting on the Internet with other similarly situated mothers across the country, including five more in New Mexico.
"I've talked to hundreds and hundreds of mothers, and they don't know what to do," Maynor says.
The women have urged lawmakers and health officials from the state level on up to President Barack Obama to consider pulling Gardasil until further research can be done.
Maynor met with state Senate Majority Leader Michael Sanchez, D-Belen, who, in turn, requested last month that state Health Department Secretary Alfredo Vigil consider initiating a dialogue on the "possible consequences" of the vaccine.
Vigil's response: "At this time, nothing indicates that there are serious events related to Gardasil that should alter current CDC recommendations."
Maynor says she does not want to be seen as a hysterical mother nor as an anti-vaccination advocate, but as someone who wants to know why her beautiful, healthy daughter is gone and as someone who wants to prevent other mothers from enduring her nightmare.
"We're not saying don't go get the vaccine. We're saying look into it. Please look at the research," she says. "There are problems. Deaths keep coming up after the Gardasil, and no one can give us answers."
At least someone now is asking the questions.
UpFront is a daily front-page opinion column. You can reach Joline at 823-3603, jkrueger@abqjournal.com or follow her on Twitter @jolinegkg.
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