Thanks to the awareness-raising work done by the Hughes family and other grieving parents, countless numbers of Australian children will now have a chance to survive and thrive.
Under a program approved on Friday, 2500 mothers-to-be in Western Australia will be eligible for a free whooping cough vaccination.
The announcement comes in the wake of the death of four-week-old Riley Hughes, who contracted whooping cough earlier this month.
Riley’s parents have welcomed the new program.
‘We only wish this had been implemented sooner, maybe then our son would still be alive,’ father Greg Hughes told the Sunday Times.
Kim Hames, WA Minister for Health, says the free vaccinations will be provided for pregnant women in their third trimester ‘effective immediately’.
The Hughes family have previously told their story to Mamamia and the work that they are doing to raise awareness about the need for mothers to be vaccinated against whooping cough in their third trimester.
Change has come too late to save their own precious children, but Australian parents now owe the Hughes and others a deep debt of gratitude for their bravery.
Their story follows…
A few days ago, a newborn baby lost his fight for life. His parents are now fighting to change the advice given to parents about vaccination for whooping cough to ensure that no more children die.
Top Comments
Given I don't use Facebook, I just want to use this comment section to extend my sympathies to the parents of Riley Hughes (and to the families of other children who have been lost to these horrid diseases).
I also wish to apologise on behalf of the rest of the human race for the nasty comments you have received from a minority of nutters. I can't believe we share the same DNA as these people. I have always been passionately pro-vax, but since I had a little boy late last year, I despise the anti-vaxers even more.
For me personally, what makes this whole sad event even more emotionally trying is how similar your cute little boy Riley looks to my cute little boy. I must say that (like my little man) the photo of Riley is one of a very handsome lad!
Obviously I'd feel very sad for any family who lost a child, regardless of how similar or dissimilar their child looked to mine. It's just that in the case of Riley, the similarities really made me see my own little boy in his face and made me imagine what it would be like for that to happen to him. Naturally, it provoked a VERY strong emotional response.
Following on from that, I imagined what it must have been like to be vilified at such a sad time by uninformed, heartless scum. Naturally, that made me bloody angry.
To the anti-vaxers out there: First, please check your facts. Second, if you won't be convinced, please don't post such hateful comments to people who are grieving.
I salute the Hughes family for pushing on with their plans to inform people of the importance of vaccinations and for people not to ignore evidence based medicine for their children. I also salute them for not being discouraged by the vile comments of the anti-vax morons. You (and any other family this has happened to) should know that there are compassionate people other there who feel for you and do not condone the nasty activity of such fanatics.
Warm Regards,
Chris Fletcher.
PS. Anybody who reads this and has a Facebook account, feel free to post it on the Riley remembrance site if they wish to! There are a number of reasons why I'm not on Facebook, which I won't go into here. But I will say that the poor signal to noise ratio of social media due to nutjobs like the anti-vaxers and other idiots is one reason!
I nearly lost my son with whooping cough when he was 2 weeks old. For over three months he was having respiratory arrests all day every day. It was only because he was a big baby that he survived. He's now 32, is prone to get every cold & flu going around, and still whoops from time to time.