Some Doctors Won't See Unvaccinated Children
BOSTON (CBS) - Over the past few years, many parents have chosen not to have their children vaccinated due to the fear of side effects.
Now some doctors are saying they are no longer interested in seeing these unvaccinated children at all.
The consequences of skipping a vaccine can be severe.
To this day, Lori Buher regrets that her son Carl didn't receive the vaccine for bacterial meningitis.
WBZ-TV's Paula Ebben reports.
He ended up losing both legs and three fingers.
"They were telling us he was going die," she explained.
Cases like that prompted Dr. Bradley Dyer to throw down the gauntlet.
He will no longer treat kids who haven't received their vaccinations.
"We wanted to take a strong stand and say this is so important to us that it's deal breaker for us," said the Dr. Dyer.
"If you're not willing to vaccinate your kids, if you're not willing to trust us and trust our judgment and education, then we have a philosophical difference here," he added.
Some diseases which were on the verge of disappearing spiked as more parents made the decision not to vaccinate.
Critics of this decision say those children become potential carriers of diseases and can make other people sick.
Dr. Ari Brown of the American Academy of Pediatrics said, "In 2008, three babies who were too young to be vaccinated ended up getting measles from an unvaccinated child who had measles in the waiting room of their doctors' office. So when doctors refuse to bring in patients who are not vaccinated and have them in the waiting room, that is a very valid concern."
Barbara Loe Fisher, the co-founder of the National Vaccine Information Center, gets angry when she hears doctors talking like that.
"We feel it's very important for parents to get all the information they can."
She added doctors "need to have a civil rational conversation with parents, and not be bullying and threatening them."
Many parents became scared when they heard about a possible link between vaccines and autism several years ago.