Family Falsely Accused of Shaken Baby Syndrome After Infant’s Vaccine Injury

When doctors can’t explain sudden brain damage and rapid health decline in healthy newborns following vaccination, they sometimes hastily accuse parents and family members of shaken baby syndrome. Constanze Asaad and her family fell into this surreal predicament regarding her granddaughter, and even worse, throughout the investigation, her son-in-law was imprisoned for two years, and the baby was placed in foster care until their innocence was determined. Criminalizing families by scapegoating and traumatizing them for what is actually vaccine damage and injury is a tragedy within itself and unfathomable.

Constanze shares her family’s story in great detail below about her granddaughter, Phoebe Starr Carlson-Bashford, with a brief question and answer to follow.

Constanze: My granddaughter Phoebe was born on May 16, 2011. My daughter’s pregnancy was normal and she did not receive a flu vaccine (nor any other vaccine) during her pregnancy.

Phoebe was healthy, weighing over seven pounds and we were thrilled to welcome her into our family. Shortly after her birth, Phoebe was nursing and immediately latched on to my daughter’s breast. After Phoebe was bathed in her father’s presence, she was brought back and this time seemed to have difficulty latching on to my daughter’s breast. We found out later that Phoebe received the Hepatitis B vaccine without our consent and I am sure she received the Vitamin K shot as well. Consent was requested the next morning and my daughter gave it thinking she was doing something good for her baby and not realizing that Phoebe had already been given her shots the previous night.

Phoebe was a wonderful newborn and only fussed when she was hungry or wet. She did have some issues with keeping her food down which is common for newborns since their digestive tract is underdeveloped (which I researched as well). I, myself, had that problem and spent my first six months in the hospital under observation as a newborn. Phoebe had several doctor’s visits. Her pediatrician even referred her to a gastroenterologist, who recommended thickening her formula (my daughter could not product enough milk), keeping her in an upright position after feeding, and all that seemed to help.

On July 18^th, Phoebe received six out of eight vaccines on a hot summer day. When she came back from the pediatrician’s office, I notice that she was very pale, quiet, and her hands were ice cold which I found strange since it was a very hot day. I asked my daughter about it and she said Phoebe had been vaccinated. I was speechless because I did not realize that babies that young are being vaccinated. I grew up in Germany and there we don’t vaccinate babies that young. My daughter herself was not vaccinated this early when we moved from Germany to the United States.

I had a bad feeling in my stomach for some reason, but brushed it aside.

On July 24^th, a Sunday, I took care of Phoebe and played with her in my bedroom while her parents took a long needed nap. When feeding her, I noticed that she flinched when the back of her head touched my arm. I wondered why she flinched, but gave it really no further thought. Phoebe enjoyed playing with me and we had great fun. I took pictures and it is evident that she was happy and content.

Monday morning, July 25^th, I looked in on her and thought what a blessing to have such a wonderful granddaughter. She slept peacefully. Her father had trouble sleeping the whole night and was up waiting for her to wake up so he could feed her. My daughter had left the house already to take her father to the doctor.

I left for work and arrived at work at about 9:00 a.m. And then the horror started. At 9:17 a.m. my coworker told me that my phone was ringing (I had gone to the break room for a cup of coffee). I answered the phone and Phoebe’s dad, Kirt, was on the phone and told me that Phoebe is not moving. My heart and mind began to race, I asked him what he meant by that and he told me that he had made her bottle after she woke up and found her non-responsive in her crib, he tickled her feet which she did not like, and she did not move. He asked if he should call the ambulance and I told him yes, of course immediately. The ambulance came and they took Phoebe to Southern Regional Medical Center in Riverdale, GA. I called my daughter and notified her about what happened, then raced out of the office. I arrived at the hospital out of breath and ran into the emergency room where Kirt was standing in front of one of the rooms. I saw a tall doctor stand over my granddaughter, nurses, and even a police officer. I heard Phoebe crying, whimpering, and told her that I love her and that I was here, moments later she stopped crying and I thought she had passed away. I asked the doctor and he said she is alive.

I spoke with Kirt and he was so upset and confused. We were told that they would have to fly Phoebe to Scottish Rite Children’s hospital to see what is going on in her brain. I was so scared to hear those words and knew right away that this was something big and awful. I called my daughter to meet us at SR Hospital. Kirt went with Phoebe by helicopter and I drove 90 miles an hour to the hospital.

Upon arrival at the hospital, I was taken to a small room where I also found Kirt and shortly thereafter my daughter arrived with her father and Joanne his wife.

We waited and wondered what could have happened to Phoebe. We cried and our hearts were heavy. After about 20 minutes, two doctors came in with somber faces and I worried that Phoebe had passed away. They assured us that she was alive and that they had to put in a drainage tube into Phoebe’s head to avoid pressure build up.

Then, the doctor proceeded to tell us that he has only seen this kind of brain injury in shaken baby cases. We did not know what that was and I only vaguely remembered the nanny case from many years ago. I had no idea what shaken baby syndrome was truly, but I/we knew one thing, nobody in our household had shaken her. We profusely denied that anyone had shaken Phoebe and told them that we all love her very much.

I asked them about other causes and basically was shut down and told that there aren’t any other known causes. They left and we cried and wondered about what just happened.

We were all interviewed one by one, they asked us about our daily activities, the prior day, what kind of baby Phoebe was and much more.

At the end of the day Phoebe was transferred to the PCU where we waited to see her. Corinna and Kirt were interviewed by the Police and DFACS (Department of Family and Children Services) took custody of Phoebe. They actually suspected us of having harmed Phoebe. We were all shocked to say the least. They told us if she has retinal hemorrhaging, she was shaken for sure. Well, as expected by us, she did NOT have retinal hemorrhaging. Despite that, my daughter still lost custody of her child that same horrible night. We were allowed to visit Phoebe, but only under supervision and instructions not to touch her. They told us that they had cases were parents tried to harm their child while in the PCU. I guess they were afraid we would kill Phoebe? Are they insane? What madness is this? We assured the nurses that we neither shook Phoebe nor would do anything to harm her. I still touched Phoebe and Phoebe later on woke up crying even though we were told she was fully sedated. As soon as she heard her mother’s voice she calmed down.

My ex-husband and his wife told me about the Five Percenters, an organization which believes that vaccines cause these brain injuries. I remembered that Phoebe had gotten her vaccines just one week earlier. I jumped on this like my life depended on it because my granddaughter’s life depended on it. I went home from the hospital that night and started my quest for the truth, the truth about what happened to my beloved granddaughter. I looked online at the Five Percenter’s website and kept seeing the word “vaccinated” over and over again. It seemed like God was sticking my nose into it telling me that it was definitely the vaccines.

A few weeks later, I contacted Dr. Yazbak who wrote articles about SBS. I emailed Dr. Sherry Tenpenny who pretty much diagnosed Phoebe’s condition correctly mentioning blood clotting issues. I read anything and everything about SBS, vaccines, brain injuries, and autism.

After about a week, Phoebe was transferred to the rehab wing of the hospital. I have a picture of her in a pink sweater with her eyes black which still brings me to tears today. She looked so very helpless and we got overwhelmed with sadness. Why did this have to happen, we all asked ourselves. We were told she has cortical blindness which basically is blindness because the brain cannot interpret the pictures the eyes see. Her eyes were in perfect condition though.

I decided to get a boom box for her so that she could listen to music. The nurses set it up and the CD played over and over again. These children songs were good for her, stimulated her brain, and made her not feel so alone since the nursing staff could not stay with her 24/7.

After about a week, one of the head nurses told us that they had moved away from the diagnosis of SBS, but still felt that one of us had harmed her which of course we vehemently denied because nobody harmed Phoebe – EVER! In other words, they had no clue what happened to Phoebe and because the holy vaccines could not possibly have had anything to do with this, they simply concluded we harmed her some other way. What a bunch bull!

We were under DFACS’s control and supervision. A foster parent was assigned and when Phoebe was released from the hospital she went into foster care. Now imagine this torment we went through on a daily basis; my newborn granddaughter was near death, then spent weeks in the hospital surrounded by strangers, and then was cared for by strangers. We had no idea what was done to her and DFACS only did so much. Even our little Pomeranian Tipsie kept looking for Phoebe.

Our horror increased when there was talk about future vaccinations according to the CDC schedule. My daughter and I researched for many hours daily and found out that the vaccines must have caused this brain bleed. We just did not know exactly how. We were horrified that DFACS would vaccinate her and cause her death. My daughter’s public defender was an old woman with a full calendar and extremely rude and condescending. She talked to us like we were idiots because most of the people she defended were of lower intellect and I am not saying this out of arrogance, but it is a fact.

We kept telling DFACs over and over again that if she gets another vaccine, she will die or become a vegetable. We found ample evidence that a child with brain damage should not be vaccinated again. They argued because this was SBS and this would not apply. Nonsense I said to them, brain injury regardless of the cause is brain injury and no further vaccines should be administered.

Kirt, Phoebe’s father told DFACS that if they vaccinate her again, they better be prepared to face a manslaughter charge. I think this shook them up and so much so that they began to realize we meant business. Our DFACS case worker actually seemed to believe us.

I got too scared and hired an attorney who specialized in vaccine injury. She sent Phoebe’s medical file to her trusted radiologist in Lancaster, Pennsylvania who confirmed that there was no sign of any damage to the neck (which we already knew, but it was great to hear it from a doctor), nor any other damage to Phoebe’s body.

Ms. Johnson fought for us and defended my daughter in court to help her regain custody of Phoebe. Dr. Kaufman, a pediatrician at SR falsely and on purpose testified in court that there was some neck damage visible on Phoebe’s x-rays. I saw these x-rays with my own eyes and there was nothing because she was not shaken. He is an evil man only interested in protecting himself and the hospital. They misdiagnosed her vaccine injury as SBS and now he had the duty to keep this lie going.

We spent nearly an entire year in daily fear that Phoebe would be vaccinated again and die. Every phone call was torture. We went to all of Phoebe’s medical appointments (even in separate cars in case a car would break down and prohibit us from getting there) with the new foster mother. A horrible woman with a nice husband who was unable to have children and we know for a fact she wanted to adopt Phoebe. But we fought and we fought hard. Never in my life have we been in a situation like this. Nobody was going to take our Phoebe away and nobody was going to vaccinate her.

The pediatrician assigned to the foster mother kept telling us how dangerous it was to not vaccinate Phoebe and we kept firing back at her at every appointment how dangerous it would be to vaccinate Phoebe. She was so dumb and really did not get it. I lost my respect for doctors completely. My daughter’s rights as a mother remained in effect throughout the entire ordeal and we could decline the vaccines every time. Once she tried to get Phoebe vaccinated and we said no and she stopped.

While Phoebe was in foster care, we had numerous meetings, court appointments, and emails with DFACS. We had one two-hour visit with Phoebe per week at my home and the lady who drove Phoebe from the foster mother’s home to our home and back saw us interact with Phoebe even while Kirt was still there before his arrest. This lady told us that we were extremely loving with Phoebe and that she did not believe that Phoebe was harmed by any of us.

In November of 2011, Phoebe’s dad, Kirt, was charged by the DA in our county and he spent two years in jail awaiting trial. He was tried and found innocent of all charges. His public defender Attorney Smith listened to us, read the book we gave him, and believed in us. Even the jury told us after the trial that they believed us and they knew it was caused by the vaccines. We were so relieved.

In June of 2012, and after having spent $6,000 dollars for our attorney, custody was returned to us. Even the horrible pediatrician told the court that Phoebe needed to be returned to her mother. Phoebe came home June 24^th and never looked back. She was home, she was happy. Corinna and I played with her, sang to her, listened to music, let her dance in her bouncy chair which she loved and kept feeding her organic foods, vitamins, and oils to help her brain recover. We kept every doctor’s appointment and did everything in our power to help her recover.

My daughter and I studied vaccines and all related subjects and were truly horrified at what we found. Never in a million years would we have vaccinated Phoebe would we have been aware of this. Only a fool would vaccinate his/her child knowing what is in a vaccine. Just because it is called a vaccine, toxins don’t magically become something positive that prevent disease. I wish people would get this through their thick stubborn skulls.

Phoebe is eight years old now, unable to walk, and had major hip surgery due to hip dysplasia caused by the brain damage from the vaccines. She can talk some, but not well, has paralysis on the right side, cannot write, feed herself, and probably will need to be diapered for the rest of her life. She can see, but if it is something new she is looking at, she does not know what it is, and it does take time for her to “see” the object — meaning it does take time for her brain to interpret the picture. Her opthalmologist says she has vision.

What lies in her future, we don’t know. We are not rich, and our wonderful attorney in Chicago was not able to get some compensation for us from the vaccine court because Phoebe’s case was so rare and there was no case history to be found online.

If I win the lottery, I will set up a fund for Phoebe to make sure she will have a good life. We are also working on teaching her some skills and hope to one day get a service dog for her.

Phoebe is a lovely, beautiful, and strong girl. She knows no stranger and everybody loves her. She loves life and loves to laugh. She has intelligence, but is trapped in a badly functioning body. She walks in a walker, but generally sits all day. She loves Elmo, Barney, and Caillou. She is always happy and loves to sing.

In 2014, I sent Phoebe’s lab reports to Dr. Michael Innis, a retired hematologist in Australia studying vaccine injuries. He concluded that Phoebe had a dysfunction of the liver which lead to a disorder of her blood coagulation system. The vaccine caused Tissue Scurvy as he called it. The liver was damaged and this set in motion Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation which led to her subdural hematoma.

I continue to research, I think about ways to make her life better, and to design something to give her more fun in life. I know if Phoebe wasn’t handicapped, she would be all over the house and be creative. What was stolen from us can never be replaced. I will not be silent and I will tell everybody about vaccine damage. Vaccines are a witch’s brew with often horrific consequences.

A brain cannot be fully repaired and once the damage is done, it is too late. Nobody can or should force vaccines on anyone. Vaccines should be abolished and replaced by vitamins, minerals, amino acids, herbs, roots, proper diet, and clean water.

Q&A with Constanze:

Q: Did Phoebe get the standard set of vaccines on the 2 month visit where she had the issues which led to the cascading events?

Constanze: Phoebe received the Pentacel 5-in-1 [DTaP – (diphtheria/tetanus/pertussis), Hib, and Polio] and one more vaccine which I believe was her second dose of Hep. B. My daughter did not allow the pediatrician to give her all 8 (PREVNAR 13 (PCV) and Rotavirus). We believe that if Phoebe would have received all 8 she would have passed away.

Q: Do you have a copy of that initial vaccination visit that shows which vaccines she received?

Constanze: Yes, I have her vaccination record. I also have all of her records from the hospital including all lab reports. Dr. Innis in Australia analyzed her labs and the info is attached for your reference. What happened to Phoebe is probably rare, but I am sure there are other kids out there with the same issue who just simply were not diagnosed properly.

Prior to her vaccinations, Phoebe was diagnosed with GERD which is very common. She was seen by doctors several times before our ordeal.

Q: What a horrific ordeal between the courts, jail for Phoebe’s dad, foster situation, Phoebe’s health issues, is there anything else you’d like to add?

Constanze: We were treated like baby killers by the hospital staff, doctors, attorneys, judges, DFACS, me included. We know there are kids out there suffering horrific abuse, but Phoebe showed absolutely NO signs of abuse (because she wasn’t abused nor shaken) and was under constant medical care because of her GERD. She was just nine weeks old, had no bruises, had not been malnourished, had no retinal hemorrhaging, nor any other signs of any abuse and this should have told them something, but it was ignored. The issue in every part of this country is that attorneys, judges, public defenders etc. just do not understand the science behind vaccines and neither did we until we started to study day and night. All they know is what we “knew”: “vaccines save lives, vaccines are safe and necessary for a healthy childhood”. They judge based on their ignorance. This ignorance could have killed Phoebe. Only with the help of an attorney were we able to stop DFACS from vaccinating Phoebe and ultimately killing her.

Child abuse is an emotional subject and I understand that the courts alongside DFACS have to protect these children, but they cannot leave common sense behind. If a child has no outward signs of abuse, they must step back and realize that there is something else going on. But when you exclude vaccines from the list of possible causes, you are left with nothing.

Q: What was the pediatrician’s initial response to Phoebe’s situation?

Constanze: She was initially supportive of Phoebe’s parents, but then when we wanted info from her, she became hostile.

Q: To confirm, it seems Phoebe was a healthy and happy infant prior to the vaccines – did you learn of any other vulnerabilities, susceptibilities, mitochondrial issues, or genetic markers (MTHFR), that would contribute to how Phoebe negatively reacted to the six vaccines given?

Constanze: Phoebe was full-term, healthy, and other than the GERD she was perfectly fine. She slept well, ate well, and only fussed when she was hungry or wet. She was a great baby and zero trouble. She started to sleep through the night.

I don’t think she had a genetic susceptibility to this, but I could be wrong.

Q: What resources would you recommend to others seeking answers about vaccine injury and damage?

Constanze: I happen to have a “medical mind” like my best friend always told me. She was a nurse at the VA for many years. And even I did not have a clue about the toxicity of vaccines and assumed they were the right thing to do. I always see the good in people and to think that there is a system out there that cares nothing about an infant’s health and pushes these toxic vaccines for profit, that is a very hard pill to swallow – much less understand. Back in 2011 when this happened, there were so many articles posted online and now it has become harder to find them. I have printed them out and saved them. I need to catalog them and share them also. Parents are in a tough position, but if I could say it one way I would say this: Educate yourself about vaccines, severely distrust your pediatrician (actually I would not even take my child to one, I would recommend either a naturopathic doctor and/or a chiropractor), do not vaccinate until you have done extensive research, but even then my advice would be not to vaccinate at all. Vaccines are like Russian Roulette, one bullet in the chamber ready to destroy your child’s life and future. Focus all your energy on healthy things for your baby. Organic food, water, supplements, clean living environment, lots of love and laughter. Mankind has survived for so many years, no vaccines were needed.

I would go on Dr. Mercola’s website, subscribe to Dr. Russell L. Blaylock’s newsletter and gain access to past newsletters, Dr. Sherry Tenpenny’s website, and listen to Dr. Suzanne Humphries on YouTube talk about Vitamin C. Dr. Bergman in California puts information into the right perspective. The more you read, the more you will learn and understand. Visualize and look up medical terminology, write it down, save it, and talk with other parents in the same situation. And don’t be so phobic about illnesses and viruses. Realize that vaccines are huge profits for doctors and big Pharma. Take charge of your child’s health and don’t be scared into vaccinating.