Five Week Old Foster Baby Dies From Vaccine Reaction

Five Week Old Foster Baby Dies From Vaccine Reaction


Five week old Zaire Knott, who was in foster care after being removed from his mother at birth, died after he was given a series of vaccinations.

A DYFS aide bringing newborn Zaire Knott from the clinic to the office on
Halsey Street noticed the infant was having trouble breathing and was bleeding from his nose. The aide rushed the boy inside DYFS District Office #1, where an in-house nurse urgently gave the newborn cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

Although the nurse was assisted by emergency medical technicians who managed to regain a pulse, the baby died in the office at 12:46 p.m.
A statement from the Newark Police Department said a DYFS worker drove the baby to the hospital.

"An exact cause of death will be determined at a later date pending the results of an autopsy," according to the police statement. DYFS officials suspect the immunizations for hepatitis B and polio "caused the distress or some sort of reaction,"
"We'll review the circumstances, but it sounds like a medical complication. We'll look at exactly what was done after they discovered the baby was
in distress.'

Susan Morrison, from the Claramaass Medical Centre in Belleville, said
It is standard for a 5-week-old to get several
vaccinations, such as hepatitis B, according to the recommended childhoodand adolescence immunization schedule provided by the
federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.'

The DYFS transportation aide had picked up the boy from the clinic for a scheduled visit with his birth mother atthe district office. DYFS
workers were distraught over the baby's death, said Hetty Rosenstein, president of Communications Workers of America Local 1037, which
represents most employees in that office."I have never seen more wrecked people," she said. The workers have been offered grief counseling, which will continue today.
The foster mother, a resident of Newark who has cared for the boy since he left the hospital after his Sept. 16 birth, also will
receive bereavement counseling.