‘Don’t believe in vaccination? Here’s the proof’: Couple share confronting whooping cough video
A New South Wales couple have hit back at the “keyboard warriors” who criticised their decision to post confronting video of their daughter’s battle with whooping cough.
Parents Turtool and Sandy Tee shared dramatic video of daughter Heidi in a bid to show every Australian, and especially those who question the benefits of vaccination, the life-and-death struggle whooping cough has on infants.
“You read a lot of scary things online about whether vaccinations are or are not safe, but you have your child in hospital stop breathing and you’ll change you view in about 10 seconds,” Mrs Tee said.
“Once you look at the video of our little girl, there’s just absolutely no way you could risk that happening to them.”
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Since contracting whooping cough, tiny Heidi Tee stops breathing, turns blue and has to be resuscitated every couple of hours.
“You’re thinking to yourself, ‘ she’s gonna pull through it yeah?’,” Mr Tee said.
“For those people who don’t believe in vaccination, here’s the proof.
“(Refusing to vaccinate) is putting little tiny 2.6kg babies at risk.
“I wouldn’t want that on my conscience.”
Heidi, who's too young to be vaccinated, contracted whooping cough after her vaccinated big brother was infected at daycare. And because her coughs were almost silent, it was difficult to diagnose.
“Heidi’s too little to be protected at the moment and there’s only so much we as parents can do to protect her so we are relying on everybody else to protect these vulnerable kids,” Mrs Tee said.
“We’re constantly seeing these arguments about to vaccinate or not to vaccinate, and some of the arguments that are coming forward… they’re not educated, there’s no proof behind them.
“Then you’ve got thousands and thousands of medical journals that are proving why it’s so important to do so and (anti-vaxxers) are just not doing it.”
The Tees, who were forced to give Heidi CPR after she went blue at the family’s Macarthur home, have called on all parents to get the message.
“It’s not nice to give CPR to your baby and I wouldn’t wish that on anybody,” Mr Tee said.
“We had a baby in our hands that was happy and healthy and now, we’ve got a sick baby on our hands that is struggling to breath.”
The Tees are taking shifts in watching tiny Heidi 24 throughout the night for those occasions when she turns blue.
Experts say there’s still around 5 per cent of Australian parents choosing not to vaccination themselves or their babies.
“Immunisation was invented 200 years ago. It is extremely safe and prevents children dying from whooping cough,” Dr Andrew McDonald said.
With Heidi condition now listed as stable, the Tees say they will continue to raise awareness of the danger of whooping cough, and hope Australian parents will hear their message.
