Happy boy should still be with us

CHRIS Kokegei and his wife Wendy made sure their four children were always fully vaccinated.

Michael Kokegei

CHRIS Kokegei and his wife Wendy made sure their four children were always fully vaccinated.

But until their seven-year-old son Michael contracted chicken pox and died in 2009, they were unaware that a vaccine had been available since 2005.

"I didn't know chicken pox could kill and Michael would have been immunised if we had known," Mr Kokegei, a Terrigal teacher, said.

When Michael died, the Kokegeis had just paid $200 for all the children to have swine flu vaccine, after reading about a Health Department warning.

"No one mentioned varicella (the vaccine) or chicken pox," Mr Kokegei said, blaming the department for not alerting parents to its availability.

"Had I known (the vaccine existed), my son Michael would still be here."

Five to seven children a year died of chicken pox before the vaccine's introduction in 2005.

Since then, hospitalisations have reduced by 68 per cent and chicken pox deaths are now exceedingly rare, according to Professor Robert Booy of the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance at Westmead Hospital.

Michael was a happy, healthy boy on the last day of a family beach holiday on October 16, 2009.

He went for a walk to the video store with his family before bathtime, when Chris noticed a few red spots on his son's torso. Just 10 minutes later, Michael lapsed into unconsciousness.

"We did CPR for 20 minutes and then he was in a coma for three days before he died," Mr Kokegei said, adding there is no possibility of closure when a child dies of a vaccine-preventable disease.

"It shouldn't have happened."