By MIKE CAPUTO
On some days, Krakow, a Valley Stream native, answers as many as 20 calls. Though each conversation focuses on a separate case, the prospective clients and the attorney share the same concerns, and they all want answers.
Perhaps no one understands the needs of his clients as well as Krakow. His 8-year-old son began to display symptoms of autism at age 6, shortly after being vaccinated. Like many of his clients, Krakow believes there was a link between the vaccinations and the autism. Since attorneys rarely take on these cases, which are known to be lengthy and difficult, Krakow, a trial lawyer, decided to team up with a colleague and represent his son. When word spread of Krakow's rare specialization, the calls began streaming into his Garden City office.
"When a parent calls me and tells me the story -- and there are a lot of variations of it -- to me it always rings true," Krakow said. "I just wouldn't want to turn a parent away."
Krakow couldn't forget one call he received from a parent whose baby cried for three straight days after a series of vaccinations. Three months later, the child could not speak, he said. Many parents with similar experiences, including Krakow, showed up at the Nassau County Legislature on Monday to address elected officials at a Health and Social Services Committee meeting about vaccines, which they believe contribute to autism.
The Web site for Autism United, a national nonprofit for families dealing with the disability, defines autism as "a disorder that severely impairs a person's ability to communicate, interact socially, and think" while also impairing many bodily processes. Parents are advised to have their children evaluated if they cannot speak, gesture or babble by the time they are 1 or 2, or if there is any loss of language or social skill at any age.
According to statistics released by Nassau County, the number of autistic children in New York state has increased nearly 700 percent since 1992, and it is believed that one in 150 are affected.
Krakow and a group of parents were joined in the Legislature by several advocates and elected officials, including Assemblyman Harvey Weisenberg (D-Long Beach) and Legislator Dave Mejias (D-Farmingdale).
Weisenberg has led an effort to ban thimerosal, a vaccine preservative that contains highly toxic mercury and is believed to be a trigger of autism in young children. There are no scientific findings to back the claim, however. With strong nonpartisan support, Weisenberg sponsored and helped pass a bill in the state Legislature that bans thimerosal in vaccinations for pregnant women and children under age 3. The law goes into effect on July 1.
Weisenberg also called for more resources to make parents more aware when contemplating vaccination for their children. "The more we make people aware, the more there will be understanding," he said.
Mejias, chairman of the county Legislature's Health and Social Services Committee, emphasized that he would listen to the parents' concerns and take action if needed. "Right now there is no known
