There are two possible scenarios here. Your doctor reports the reaction, but as an afterthought, you ask for a copy of that report. Sitting there, reading it, you are staggered. This report sounds like a completely different reaction to the one your child suffered! After all, local reaction and pain at injection site, just doesn’t come anywhere near what you are seeing in front of your eyes.
(How many parents bother to check up on what doctors “say” their child suffered????? – Bottom line; report any reactions yourself!!!)
Some parents at this point, walk away in disgust, because they don’t realise they can report the reaction to CARM themselves. Another thing most doctors don’t tell parents.
So alternative medicine gains an adherent by default, because mainstream medicine just became lamestream medicine.
You’ve had enough and just can’t be bothered with them.
This would apply to most parents I’ve talked to. They just don’t want to know about the system any more. They’ve had it up to their necks and back again.
The second much rarer scenario is that because the doctor wouldn’t report it, you think about reporting the reaction to CARM yourself. This isn’t helped by the fact that the doctors don’t tell you how.
You are now on your own. You find CARM on the web, and you look at the reaction form and wonder, why is that so feeble? Why is there not a comprehensive form asking me lots of questions?
Maybe you just give up.
You are not alone. Most people do just that.
And there is another reason many people either give up, or don’t report, and that’s because they’ve heard what happens when you do report a reaction, and know that reporting a reaction is the start in a process which is, quite simply, a farce. It could form the basis of a sarcastic comedy like “Yes Minister”, if it wasn’t so downright serious.
