Parents who believe their children’s health was devastated after having vaccines gathered in support of Andrew Wakefield on Monday as he was struck off.
The controversial medic was found guilty of serious professional misconduct by the General Medical Council and erased from the medical register.
Allison Edwards, chairwoman of campaign group Cry Shame, which has supported him throughout the proceedings, said: “I knew they would do this, they’ve had the intention of doing this for the past three years.
“This is to issue a warning to doctors not to dissent. No children were harmed in the clinical tests, they were trying to look at the problems and treat them, and the children improved. How do you get charged with doing your job?”
She believes that her son was left with neurological damage after having the MMR jab at the age of one.
He is now 13 and cannot speak, or wash or dress himself.
Dr Wakefield was accused of carrying out unnecessary tests, including lumbar punctures, on children as part of his research.
Isabella Thomas, 53, from Somerset, insisted that her two sons Michael, 18, and Terry, 16, received “fantastic” treatment at the Royal Free Hospital under Dr Wakefield.
She said: “They were normal, then they started to deteriorate neurologically and medically. They were in the most horrendous pain you could think of. I went from doctor to doctor trying to find out what was wrong.
“I was only too pleased to be part of the study (at the Royal Free Hospital) because we needed to find out what was wrong with the boys.”
Copyright © Press Association 2010
