Molly Ferguson

Have you ever watched a baby die of pertussis? I have. Several. This is what it looks like: A newborn baby can’t stop coughing. They can’t catch their breath and they can’t eat. They get dehydrated and stop peeing. They sometimes have pauses in their breathing. Parents are terrified so they come to the ER. In the ER, labs show they have a dangerously high white blood cell count. Their blood has become thick from the white blood cells and doesn’t travel through organs like it should. Less oxygen gets delivered to vital organs. They start to seize. Imaging reveals they had a stroke. They can’t pump blood to their lungs and body. A breathing tube gets placed in their trachea. They get put on a ventilator. A plastic catheter is placed in their veins and arteries to give them medicine and measure blood pressure. If they are lucky, they can make it to a #PedsICU that provides #ECMO, or full heart lung bypass. They are attached to machines that take over all their body functions. But it’s too late. Their hands and feet turn black because they can’t perfuse their bodies. Their faces turn grey/green. They won’t stop seizing from the brain injury. They are attached to too many machines to hold while alive and parents lay their bodies on top of them and cry until they fall asleep then cry again. There is nothing to do but stop the machines. Antibiotics to treat pertussis were given but were no match for the infections effects on a newborn baby. Parents finally hold their baby after the machines have turned off and their baby is cold and lifeless. Is this what you want? This is what RFK Jr will bring to American families.