Death by MMR Vaccine. Five-year-old Holly's last words were, "Mommy help."

Holly's Law, the financial incentives that led to Holly's death, and the need to protect other children from over-vaccination with MMR.

Note from Marcella: Holly Stavola was a beautiful, vibrant five-year-old girl who died after suffering a serious adverse reaction from the MMR vaccine. The United States Government conceded the MMR vaccine was responsible for Holly’s death. After Holly’s passing, her parents became active in getting legislation passed in New Jersey, giving parents the legal right to opt-out of the second MMR vaccination (generally given prior to kindergarten) if the child showed evidence of immunity through titer tests.

This post contains two parts. The first part is Holly’s story, as told by her mother. The second part includes information about Holly’s Law. It also contains information about the financial incentives that led to Holly’s death and the serious injuries and deaths of other children from MMR vaccine.

The information in this post about what happened to Holly Stavola was gathered from the following published online reports:

• Circle of Mamas - Holly Stavola’s Story

• Natural Blaze - 5-year-old girl died from MMR vaccine. Holly’s Law created.

Holly Marie Stavola

January 18, 1995 – February 4, 2000

From Holly’s mother Robin:

On February 4th, 2000, Holly Stavola, a daughter, a sibling, a grandchild, and a niece died tragically and unnecessarily from encephalopathy due to her 2nd MMR vaccination, which was required of her for kindergarten.

Holly was a completely healthy, bright, kind and beautiful 5-year-old child. The day she received her vaccinations at her 5 year well check-up, Holly was not sick nor immunocompromised in any way.

She received the MMR, the oral polio (which was no longer recommended as of Jan. 2000), the DTaP, the Mantoux test, and my son received the Chickenpox Vaccine (he was 9 years old). She became very ill a week following the shots, which is within the expected time period, a vaccine table injury of encephalopathy.

Encephalopathy is one of the potential reactions of the MMR as stated in the Merck Package Insert and the vaccine table on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It can occur between 5-15 days after the vaccine.

Holly suffered 65 hours before becoming brain dead. Her first symptoms were a 107-degree fever and seizure that happened in our house before calling 911. In the first hospital we were screaming for help; they did a spinal tap to check for meningitis, and with increasing brain inflammation this should not have been done.

She was shivering because hypothermia set in due to them trying to cool down her 107/108 fever. She was naked, vomiting, could not speak (ataxia), and had tears in her eyes. Her last words in the ambulance were, “Mommy help.”

The doctors eliminated possible infectious, bacterial and viral diseases and concluded that all her symptoms were due to encephalopathy, a vaccine table injury. 

The federal government conceded that Holly’s death was compensable due to a vaccine.

Vaccine advocates like to say Holly’s reaction was ‘one in a million.’ The truth is, 1 out of 168 children end up in the ER after vaccination.

Holly’s reaction was not an allergic reaction. The MMR vaccine information statement states, “serious allergic reaction occurs in (less than 1 out of a million doses),” however, it does state, “seizure (jerking or staring) caused by fever occurs in (about 1 out of 3,000 doses).”

Vaccine advocates also like to say that even though we were compensated, it doesn’t mean anything. The federal government conceded that Holly’s death was compensable due to a vaccine. The Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP) has paid out more than $3.18 billion to date. (As of February 1, 2024, the total paid out is $5,050,074,788 - more than FIVE BILLION dollars.)

The doctors eliminated all possible infectious, bacterial and viral infections that could have been causing Holly’s symptoms. How many coincidences can occur before there are no longer coincidences? There are three requirements of causality and Holly passed all three.

If you don’t think your child will end up like Holly, I never did, either. She was perfect and our choice to have her vaccinated, based on what we knew, took her away from us.

It’s also worth mentioning, New Jersey has one of the highest rates of autism compared to other states in the U.S. Many parents know the MMR vaccine contributed to their child becoming autistic (The U.S. government has admitted and compensated dozens of cases of vaccine-induced autism); this is another reason parents may want to utilize Holly’s Law.

Take a look at the MMR package insert from Merck. Scroll to the adverse reactions section, starting on page 6. Page 7 highlights encephalopathy, which is one of the potential reactions of the MMR.

Holly’s Law

On January 14, 2004, Governor James McGreevey signed the bill, P.L. 2003, c257, into law. Holly’s law. The law allows titers or antibodies against measles-mumps-rubella to be acceptable in place of an MMR booster vaccination for school.

Four days before what would have been Holly’s ninth birthday, Holly’s Law was unanimously released from both the Senate and Assembly Health Committees. It passed the Senate 40-0 on May 29, 2003 and it passed the Assembly 74-0 on January 12, 2004.

The Rationale for Holly’s Law, and the financial incentives that led to her death:

What many people do not realize is that the reason a second MMR vaccine is given is because 2-5% of people (children, in this case) do not show evidence of immunity after a single dose. (source, source)

Instead of identifying who those children are, and giving the second MMR based on individual response, the decision was made to just give everyone a second dose, in effect, over-vaccinating 95-98% of children, exposing them unnecessarily to increased risk of adverse reactions, including encephalopathy and death. This decision obviously was not made in the interest of what is best for our children.

FINANCIAL INCENTIVES FOR OVER-VACCINATION:

The screen shot below shows the CDC’s cost per dose for contracts through the Vaccines for Children program, which provides vaccines for children who qualify for Medicaid/CHIP: $24.955 and $24.97 (highlighted in yellow). The pink highlight shows the cost for the MMR vaccine when obtained through the private sector.

$92.50 - $24.96 = $67.54 (profit to the manufacturer).

According to census data, there are approximately 73.5 Million children under the age of 18 in the United States. According to analysis conducted at Georgetown University, approximately 65% of American children (under 18) are eligible for Medicaid/CHIP. That leaves approximately 35% of American children who are not eligible, and whose parents (and insurance providers), presumably, would be charged the full price ($92.50-ish) for their unnecessary second MMR vaccine.

35% of 73,500,000 = 25,725,000 children.

25,725,000 x $67.54 = $1,737,466,500

One BILLION, seven hundred thirty-seven million, four hundred sixty-six thousand, five hundred dollars in profit, over an 18-year period, for administering a second MMR vaccine. This translates to an annual profit to the vaccine manufacturers of $96,525,916.67 (roughly $100 Million dollars, U.S.). Per YEAR. From ONE (unnecessary) dose of ONE product.

With that kind of money involved, it’s easy to imagine that our children’s health and well-being may not be the number one priority to the vaccine makers and their cronies operating in the revolving door scenario that characterizes the extreme conflicts of interest between those who manufacture, promote, and profit from vaccines.

“You cannot be in the presence of a profoundly vaccine damaged child and not know that child could be your own.  And you cannot try to comfort a mother who has just buried a baby who has died from a vaccine … and not know that you could be the one standing over the grave.  When it happens to your child, the risks are 100 percent.”

~Barbara Loe Fisher (Founder of the National Vaccine Information Center)

Please get involved. Visit NVIC’s Advocacy Portal. Register. Learn what you and like-minded individuals can do to help protect our children and grandchildren from the unchecked greed that is responsible for taking precious lives like Holly’s.