Sunday Mercury, 06/07/2003

A British mother is campaigning to ban the mercury-based preservative, Thimerosal, from being used in child vaccinations - because it has been linked to autism by some researchers.

Claire Bothwell, originally from Coventry, has led a battle in the United States against Thimerosal, a compound 50 per cent composed of ethylmercury. It is contained in the diphtheria, tetanus and wholecell pertussis (DTP) vaccine given to babies in Britain. The preservative is also found in hepatitis B and some influenza jabs but it is not used in the combined MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine which campaigners have also linked to autism.

Mother-of-three Claire, who has two autistic children, Fisk and Katrina, has been dubbed the English Erin Brockovich in the US because of her campaign against the preservative.

She claims that her children became autistic as a direct result of being injected with vaccinations containing Thimerosal.

The US Congress has recommended that pharmaceutical companies stop using the preservative in paediatric vaccines in America and British campaigners want an outright ban on mercury being used in child vaccinations in the United Kingdom. But the UK government has rejected suggestions that the preservative has any adverse effect on infants.

US researchers recently claimed that children who had received vaccines containing Thimerosal were more than twice as likely to develop autism than children who did not.

Earlier studies appear also to have shown that the symptoms of autism are markedly similar to those of mercury poisoning.

Claire first heard about the possible links between autism and Thimerosal through a friend who sent her a report titled "Autism: A Novel Form of Mercury Poisoning." Her son, Fisk, was nine at the time and she immediately began investigating the claims.

ORANGEBURG, South Carolina, USA: A judge has refused a request by the parents charged with killing their autistic son to be tried separately.

However, Circuit Judge James C. Williams said on July 1 that he would allow the couple's attorneys to renew the request after they had received additional details about the prosecution's case.

Renee and Terrence Britt are charged with homicide by child abuse, aiding and abetting homicide by child abuse and unlawful conduct toward a child in the death of six-year-old Gabriel Britt in 2001.

Gabriel was found dead in a pond near the family's home in the Dorchester County community of Texas on March 11, 2001, eight days after he was reported missing.

At the hearing on July 1, Williams also heard arguments about whether prosecutors should be compelled to provide more details about the charges. He is expected to rule on that motion later this month.

The Britts are being held without bail. Their trial is expected to start in St. George, South Carolina, on August 4.

Ansonia-WTNH, 08/06/2003

ANSONIA, Connecticut, USA: The parents of a five-year-old autistic boy were arrested on June 8 after he was found two miles from their Ansonia home at a doughnut shop in Seymour with the family's cat.

Erika Torres, 24, and Eliezer Torres, 27, were charged with risk of injury to a minor, a felony that carries up to 10 years in prison. They were released on bail and are to appear in court later this month.

Erika Torres told WTNH-TV that her son, Jacob, had left the house before. She said she and her husband had put new locks on the front door and blocked the back door with a bookcase.

Erika Torres said she had been taking a shower at about 10 a.m. when her husband came home and said he could not find the boy. She called 911 at about the same time a witness called police to report seeing the boy.

"I was freaking out," Erika Torres said. "I was blaming my husband. I was blaming myself. I felt horrible. I'm like, how did I let this happen?"

Jacob was found unharmed. He was taken to Griffin Hospital for observation and released.

Erika Torres said it was difficult raising an autistic child. She played down the arrests of herself and her husband. "I'd prefer not to have it on my record," she said. "But as long as he's safe, I don't care what happens to us."

Jacob was diagnosed with autism last year. The Torres's now say they will buy a lock for his room.

HOUSTON, Texas, USA: An autistic teenager who cannot speak saved the lives of her family after a fire ripped through their home here early on the morning of May 8.
 
The fire broke out shortly after 3 am at the family's duplex. Pat Whitley told News2Houston that the fire broke out in his daughter Sandy's bedroom. "She could have caught on fire because she was sleeping right on the bed," Whitley said. "She could have been burned up."

Whitley said that 17-year-old Sandy, who is autistic, mentally disabled and non-verbal, had saved him and the rest of his family by waking them all up. "I wanted to go back to sleep, and then she kept on wanting me to get up," Whitley said.

He said that, after he got up, he smelled smoke and raced to his daughter's half of the duplex, which is next door to his, and saw the flames quickly spread through her bedroom.
"My first thought was to put it out, but it went up so fast," Whitley said. "It was too much smoke. I started choking, so I just got my daughter and we got out."

Firefighters managed to prevent the blaze from spreading to the other half of the duplex, where Whitley's mother and two other children were sleeping.

"We saw a huge fire of 6 feet - higher than the house and we woke up and it's 3 o'clock in the morning and we were all asleep," said a neighbour, Carolyn Nelson. "It was very scary - very hot."

No injuries were reported. Sandy's part of the duplex had suffered heavy fire and smoke damage, the authorities said.

Fire investigators said that a window air-conditioning unit in Sandy's bedroom may have sparked the blaze.

MARLBORO, Massachusetts, USA: A former special-needs elementary school teacher has been sentenced to probation for assaulting a five-year-old autistic boy by sitting on him and force-feeding him peaches.

Laurie Brennan, 35, pleaded guilty to assault and battery at Marlboro District Court on May 2, and was sentenced to six months in jail, a term which was suspended. She was instead ordered to serve two years of probation, do 300 hours of community service and write a letter of apology to the boy's parents.

"I knew he would be beaten, teased and bullied, but I didn't know it would be someone in Laurie Brennan's position," said the boy's mother, Debi MacLean.

The charges stem from incident at the Mulready School on March 6, 2002, where other teachers reported seeing the 160-pound Brennan sitting on 40-pound Grey MacLean. According to court records, Brennan also held the boy down and forced peaches down his throat, which made him vomit.

Judge Thomas Sullivan sentenced Brennan to six months in jail, then suspended the sentence in favour of two years' supervised probation. Brennan must serve 300 hours of community service and write a letter of apology to the boy's parents, Debi and Michael MacLean. She was also ordered to not work with special-needs children, or take a job with a school, camp or youth organisation.

Debi MacLean, who read a statement at the hearing, was elated with the sentence. "When I went in there, I was very discouraged. To walk out with a sentence it was elation, it was wonderful," she said. "It's what she deserved."