Parenting

Mom Pleads With Parents to Vaccinate After Losing Her 2-Year-Old to Measles

ParentingPublished Jun 14, 2018
By Maressa Brown
Dragana PetrovicDragana Petrovic

A devastated mother from Serbia named Dragana Petrovic has taken to Facebook to share the absolutely heart-wrenching story of losing her 2-year-old to measles. On the "Light for Riley" Facebook page, as well as on her own page called "Justice for Nadja," Petrovic explained how her daughter contracted the viral infection.

When Nadja was just 1, she was diagnosed with autoimmune polyendocrine syndrome type 1.-placeholder
When Nadja was just 1, she was diagnosed with autoimmune polyendocrine syndrome type 1.
Dragana Petrovic

When Nadja was just 1, she was diagnosed with autoimmune polyendocrine syndrome type 1.

According to Petrovic, her baby girl contracted the disease from a young boy while they were staying in the same hospital room in Serbia in January this year.

Due to her diagnosis, Nadja was unable to get the MMR vaccine.-placeholder
Due to her diagnosis, Nadja was unable to get the MMR vaccine.

Due to her diagnosis, Nadja was unable to get the MMR vaccine.

The common shot guards against mumps, measles, and rubella. 

“We often stayed in the hospital because simply oral therapy could not raise the level of calcium, which was extremely low,” Petrovic explained on Facebook. “We hoped that the collective immunity would protect her in the course of an epidemic.”

According to the post on "Light for Riley," "a growing anti-vaccine movement in Serbia" has lead to "a measles outbreak with thousands and thousands of cases reported."

Despite their best efforts to keep Nadja safe, they soon learned that the boy in the bed next to hers at the hospital had measles.-placeholder
Despite their best efforts to keep Nadja safe, they soon learned that the boy in the bed next to hers at the hospital had measles.

Despite their best efforts to keep Nadja safe, they soon learned that the boy in the bed next to hers at the hospital had measles.

“At the moment, my world collapsed, I knew that she would get it, but again in the depths of the soul I hoped she will not,” Petrovic wrote.

Days later, her daughter came down with a fever. "I knew immediately what it was," Petrovic said. "I trembled, cried, but REALLY hoped it was not measles. On the same day in the evening, Nadja drowned in a dream from which she never woke up again ... she did not eat, did not drink, she did not wake up, she did not respond ... she was getting worse every day, her needs for oxygen were bigger, and we received confirmation that she was contaminated with measles."

Nadja's struggle for her life lasted almost three months.-placeholder
Nadja's struggle for her life lasted almost three months.
Dragana Petrovic

Nadja's struggle for her life lasted almost three months.

"On April 4, 2018, at 18h, she was in heart failure, and besides all the measures taken, Nadja received her angel wings at 18.30," she said. 

She wanted to share her incredibly heartbreaking with the world on social media, "in order to educate parents who have doubts about the vaccination of their children. Every child has the right to be protected from infectious diseases." 

Petrovic feels "Nadja became a victim, giving up her own life, to show how this harmless child's disease can endanger one's life. Now it's up to us to share her story so that nobody suffers like she did. My angel left me too early, but I will fight so no one forgets here and goes through what I went through."

With hope, parents who are on the fence about vaccination will hear this mother's plea.

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