Vaccine Preventable Death – Collin Springborn

Age at death - 3 months
Cause of death – Whooping cough (pertussis)
Vaccination Status – Unknown. He could have received the 1st of the 5 DTaP doses required for full immunization (first dose is recommended at 2 months)
What happened – Collin contracted the virus a week before he died. During that week, Collin’s mother recalls took him to the hospital several times and doctors were unable to diagnose what was causing the cough. The coughing became progressively worse  to the point where Collin would turn blue and vomit.
Doctors did blood work but were unable to diagnosis the problem as whooping cough. Collin stopped breathing at 6 p.m. on a Friday, hours after returning home from a doctor’s appointment. He was placed in the pediatrics intensive care unit at Children’s Hospital of Michigan in Detroit and died two days later.
Collin’s twin brother also got the disease. He was in and out of the hospital during a 4 month period, and luckily survived the disease that took his brother. Our hearts go out to the parents; I am very sorry for the pain you’ve had to endure.
Sources
The Times Herald