Gamma globulin

Then, one day in November 1962, Olivia [Roald Dahl’s daughter] returned home from school with a note from the headmistress at Godstowe, notifying all parents that there was an outbreak of measles. Pat [Patricia Neal, Roald’s wife] and Roald were concerned largely for Theo [their son], because he was still so vulnerable to infection. There was no generic measles vaccination available then… However, Dahl knew that gamma globulin could be used to boost children’s immunity against the disease and that, although uncommon in England, in America it was a fairly routine prophylactic.

The pediatrician Dr. [Philip Rainsford] Evans, who had arrived at the hospital after Olivia died, came early the next morning to Gipsy House and told them [Roald and Patricia] that she [Olivia] had been the victim of measles encephalitis, a rare inflammation of the brain… He confirmed that large doses of gamma globulin could well have prevented her from getting the disease. Thus, Pat remembered, began the “landslide of anger and frustration” that almost buried the family.