House Bill 9059

    Florida House of Representatives - 1999                HR 9059

        By Representative Crow






  1                         House Resolution

  2         A resolution honoring the memory of Jonathon

  3         Ryan Atchison.

  4

  5         WHEREAS, Jonathon Ryan Atchison was a healthy

  6  6-year-old until he contracted and died from a common

  7  childhood illness: chicken pox, and

  8         WHEREAS, Jonathon, a kindergartner at Ozona Elementary

  9  School in North Pinellas County, died on February 23, 1998,

10  and

11         WHEREAS, it took the Pinellas-Pasco Medical Examiner's

12  Office 2 months to confirm that Jonathon died from a severe

13  case of chicken pox, and

14         WHEREAS, a vaccine for chicken pox has been available

15  since 1995, and

16         WHEREAS, the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta has

17  declared chicken pox to be the leading cause of deaths

18  preventable by a vaccine in the United States, and

19         WHEREAS, studies indicate that chicken pox cases cost

20  the country between $400 million and $500 million a year in

21  health care and lost wages, and

22         WHEREAS, Florida spends approximately $2.7 million each

23  year to provide free vaccinations against polio, diphtheria,

24  measles, rubella, mumps, hepatitis B, and whooping cough, all

25  of which are required for school-age children, and

26         WHEREAS, the state's expenditures would increase an

27  estimated $1.5 million next year if the chicken pox vaccine

28  were also required for school-age children, and

29         WHEREAS, since Jonathon's death, his mother, Kathy

30  Atchison, has sought to increase public awareness of the

31  availability of the chicken pox vaccine, and to add the

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CODING: Words stricken are deletions; words underlined are additions.






    Florida House of Representatives - 1999                HR 9059

    568-159-99






  1  vaccine to the immunizations Florida requires for school-age

  2  children, and

  3         WHEREAS, it is altogether fitting and appropriate for

  4  the House of Representatives to commemorate the untimely

  5  passing of young Jonathon Ryan Atchison by seeking to avert

  6  future child deaths from this preventable disease, NOW,

  7  THEREFORE,

  8

  9  Be It Resolved by the House of Representatives of the State of

10  Florida:

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12         That the House pause in its deliberations to honor the

13  memory of Jonathon Ryan Atchison, who died of chicken pox on

14  February 23, 1998, at 6 years of age, and to offer its

15  heartfelt condolences to the Atchison family and pledge its

16  determination to seek to avert further child deaths from this

17  preventable disease.

18         BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this resolution

19  be presented to Jonathon's mother, Kathy Atchison, as a

20  tangible token of the sentiments expressed herein.

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