Pediatrician’s suicide note says he lied about vaccinating kids, Illinois cops say

An Illinois pediatrician’s suicide note has sparked an investigation after police say it suggested the doctor didn’t vaccinate children despite parents’ requests.

Evergreen Park pediatrician Dr. Van Koinis was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in a Cook County forest preserve in September, WBBM reported. Now, police say Koinis’ suicide note indicates he wasn’t vaccinating patients like he said was.

Evergreen Park is roughly 16 miles southwest of Chicago.

The note explained that Koinis had been “averse” to vaccinations for the last 10 years of his career and that he “regretted his conduct with immunizations,” according to the Chicago Sun-Times.

“We have no real ability at this point to be able to narrow the scope,” Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart told WGN. “All we can say is that a person that was very well-respected, well-liked doctor for many, many years committed suicide and left a note that was very clear that he had horrible regrets for how acted, specifically during a 10-year time frame leading up to now. And specifically as it applied to vaccinations and the records that are kept in regards to that.”

Because of the state of Koinis’ record keeping, police say they’re having a tough time determining which children were vaccinated and which weren’t, the outlet reported. They believe Koinis may have forged immunization records, according to the Sun-Times

“The biggest issue is parents who are under the impression their children are immunized when they are not,” Dart told the newspaper.

Police say Koinis’ former patients should talk to their current physicians to determine if they need to be tested for prior vaccinations, WBBM reported.

Anyone with information about Koinis is asked to call the Cook County Sheriff’s Office, according to the outlet. A special hotline was also set up for former patients with questions about their medical records at 630-670-1673.