The controversial MMR jab played no part in the death of a "healthy and robust" baby 10 days after having the vaccine, a coroner ruled today.
The controversial MMR jab played no part in the death of a "healthy and robust" baby 10 days after having the vaccine, a coroner ruled today.
George Fisher, aged 18 months, was discovered dead in his cot in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire by his mother Sarah Fisher hours after he was heard "chatting away on the baby monitor".
Mrs Fisher, 42, and husband Christopher, 43, believe the vaccine is "implicated" in their son's death in January 2006 as its temperature-raising effects on children who have previously suffered a fit, as George had, were not explained to them.
Today Gloucestershire coroner Alan Crickmore decided, after listening to a series of expert witnesses, that George's symptoms had emerged too soon after the Measles, Mumps and Rubella (MMR) jab to be related to it.
Although George had a 2% chance of suffering a convulsion after the jab, those were not known to be fatal and there was no evidence he had even had a second fit.
Instead county coroner Alan Crickmore recorded a verdict of natural causes, explaining that George had died from a rare condition known as Sudden Unexpected Death in Childhood, due to an unascertained disease.
The verdict came after doctors, paediatricians and consultants told the hearing at Gloucester Shire Hall there was no evidence of a link between George's death and the administration of the vaccine.
Department of Health guidelines say the jab should be given "with caution" but does not ban child sufferers of febrile convulsions - fever fits - from taking it and recommends temperature monitoring.
After the inquest, George's mother stormed out of the Gloucester City Council offices where the case was heard, spitting out the words 'natural causes' with disgust.
Ten years ago research led by Dr Andrew Wakefield, a gastroenterologist at London's Royal Free Hospital sparked fears that the combined MMR vaccine was linked to autism.
Several studies in Britain, Finland and Japan have since disproved connection but popular anxiety over 'the jab' has persisted.
Last week it emerged that cases of measles had topped 1,000 for the first time in more than a decade.
Mary Ramsay of the Health Protection Agency attributed the rise to the 'relatively low' uptake of the MMR vaccine.
After the hearing the family's lawyer Judith Leach said George's parents were 'extremely disappointed' with the verdict and would always believe MMR was to blame as no other cause had been found.
She read a statement saying: "The family are extremely disappointed in the verdict.
"In the absence of any medical evidence to explain why their healthy little boy died and given the timing of the MMR vaccination in relation to George's death, his parents firmly believe there is a link between the two events and that the MMR vaccine had a role to play in George's death."
Fighting back tears Mrs Fisher, standing outside court with her husband, said: "I think it's so wrong to put the death of a healthy little boy down to natural causes. There's nothing natural about an 18-month-old boy dying of nothing, because that's what it was - nothing.
"This has devastated our family all over again. Three years of work and reports and it's just natural causes? I'll never, ever understand that word."
