CBS News: Vaccine Court--where children with autism are "quietly winning their cases"

[jenniferm]

The tragic death of little Elias Tembenis is yet another vaccine injury case you probably won't hear much about. Yet some medical experts believe it could teach us something about how to make vaccination safer.

It could also add to the limited body of knowledge as to why the vast majority of kids are vaccinated safely, but a minority become seriously ill, brain-damaged or even die. Still, government officials have said they have no plans to study cases like Elias': cases that victims are winning against the government in the little-known federal vaccine court.

According to court and medical records, Elias was born on Aug. 23, 2000 and appeared healthy until Dec. 26 when he received his second dose of DTaP vaccine. His parents noticed some swelling around the injection site. According to court records:

"Early in the morning on December 27, 2000, Elias's parents found himseizing in his crib and took him to the emergency room ("ER")...Within one day, he developed a fever, which led to a complex febrile seizure. Subsequently, Elias developed epilepsy. This fact pattern is commonly seen in the Vaccine Program."

According to court records, after the DTaP reaction, the once-healthy baby ended up with debilitating medical problems, including features of autism, ear infections and developmental delay. His parents first filed their case as one of the "omnibus" group of autism cases to be heard in federal vaccine court.

According to those familiar with the case, the couple felt their chances of winning with the autism cases was slim because the idea of a link between vaccines and autism is so controversial. So they separated their case from the autism group and filed on the basis of their son's epilepsy and seizures.

They recently prevailed in court. It's one more example where vaccine-injured children who end up with autism are quietly winning their cases, but only when they focus on the more general argument of seizures or brain damage rather than autism.

Some victory. On Nov. 17, 2007 Elias' illnesses became too much for him. The little seven year old boy died. If the right people bothered to study the medical details of the case, they might learn something about why Elias got so sick from his vaccines, and how to identify ahead of time what babies might have the same problem. The former head of the National Institutes of Health, Dr. Bernardine Healy, has said such study would actually protect the integrity of the vaccine program, rather than threaten it (as she says many government officials fear). So far, though, no takers. Elias' case becomes quietly filed away in vaccine court archives with nearly 1,300 other vaccine brain injuries-none of them apparently being pooled for study. An undetermined number of them, like Elias', involving autism diagnoses.

What made these children get sick? Why couldn't they tolerate their vaccines when most kids can? Unanswered questions.

[jenniferm]

Jan. 21, 2011 at 12:54 PM

posted comment:

The news about Elias Tembenis comes out at the same time major news stories are proclaiming that the vaccine-autism controversy is dead.  There are renewed charges about the British doctor who first wrote about what he observed in 12 autistic children with bowel disease.  Dr. Andrew Wakefield has been attacked for the last several years for daring to suggest that there may be a link between vaccines and autism.  We're being told by reporters, health officials, and doctors that all the science is in and there's no proof of a link.

 

The very fact that to win in Vaccine Court, Elias Tembenis's parents couldn't mention autism as a side effect is telling.  Encephalopathy and seizures are acceptable, but daring to include autism is a sure way to kill any case. 

 

Thousands upon thousands of parents report that their normally developing children suddenly changed after being vaccinated.  They developed severe diarrhea, constipation, sleep disorders, and seizures.  They stopped talking, lost learned skills, and they were also eventually diagnosed with autism.  Are we to believe that everything but autism can result from vaccinations?

 

We can't continue to ignore a health care disaster now affecting one percent of our children.  The numbers and the cost are staggering.  As Dr. Bernadine Healy said, the studies haven't been done that would disprove a link.  Most important of all, health officials refuse to call for the one study that would easily settle the question of a link between vaccines and autism.  Why has there never been a study comparing the autism rate in children who've been fully vaccinated with those children who've never been vaccinated.  If one percent of never-vaccinated kids are also autistic, it would be the final proof of no link.  We need to seriously ask why it's never been done.

(Original Poster)

[agentwanda]

Jan. 21, 2011 at 3:51 PM

"The very fact that to win in Vaccine Court, Elias Tembenis's parents couldn't mention autism as a side effect is telling.  Encephalopathy and seizures are acceptable, but daring to include autism is a sure way to kill any case."

This is so NOT right!!! 

[jenniferm]

Jan. 23, 2011 at 7:33 PM

I KNOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(Original Poster)