An article in the Huffington Post from Robert Kennedy and David Kirby on a court case regarding neurological damage caused by the MMR vaccine, in which an award of compensation was given to the child's parents.

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First we will quote from the above article (and then later quote from the court case transcript itself.)

But last week, the parents of yet another child with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) were awarded a lump sum of more than $810,000 (plus an estimated $30-40,000 per year for autism services and care) in compensation by the Court, which ruled that the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine had caused acute brain damage that led to his autism spectrum disorder.

The family of 10-year-old Bailey Banks won their case quietly and without fanfare in June of 2007, but the ruling has only now come to public attention. In the remarkably clear and eloquent decision, Special Master Richard Abell ruled that the Banks had successfully demonstrated that "the MMR vaccine at issue actually caused the conditions from which Bailey suffered and continues to suffer."

Bailey's diagnosis is Pervasive Developmental Disorder -- Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS) which has been recognized as an autism spectrum disorder by CDC, HRSA and the other federal health agencies since at least the 1990s.

In his conclusion, Special Master Abell ruled that Petitioners had proven that the MMR had directly caused a brain inflammation illness called acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADEM) which, in turn, had caused the autism spectrum disorder PDD-NOS in the child

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The Bailey decision is not an isolated ruling. We now know of at least two other successful ADEM cases argued in vaccine Court. More significantly, an explosive investigation by CBS News has found that since 1988, the vaccine court has awarded money judgments, often in the millions of dollars, to thirteen hundred and twenty two families whose children suffered brain damage from vaccines. In many of these cases, the government paid out awards following a judicial finding that vaccine injury lead to the child's autism spectrum disorder. In each of these cases, the plaintiffs' attorneys made the same tactical decision made by Bailey Bank's lawyer, electing to opt out of the highly charged Omnibus autism Proceedings and argue their autism cases in the regular vaccine court. In many other successful cases, attorneys elected to steer clear of the hot button autism issue altogether and seek recovery instead for the underlying brain damage that caused their client's autism.

Medical records associated with these proceedings clearly tell the tale. In perhaps hundreds of these cases, the children have all the classic symptoms of regressive autism; following vaccination a perfectly healthy child experiences high fever, seizures, and other illnesses, then gradually, over about three months, loses language, the ability to make eye contact, becomes "over-focused" and engages in stereotypical head banging and screaming and then suffers developmental delays characteristic of autism. Many of these children had received the autism diagnosis. Yet the radioactive word "autism" appears nowhere in the decision.

Instead the vaccine court Special Masters rest their judgments on their finding that the vaccines caused some generalized brain injury, mainly Encephalopathy/encephalitis (brain inflammation) or "seizure disorders" -- conditions known to cause autism-like symptoms. A large number of the children who have won these judgments have been separately diagnosed with autism. HRSA acknowledged this fact in a recent letter, but told us it does not keep data on how many of these children were autistic.

The vaccine Court, in other words, seems quite willing to award millions of dollars in taxpayer funded compensation to vaccine-injured autistic children, so long as they don't have to call the injury by the loaded term "autism." That hazard is particularly acute for vaccine victims who appear before the Omnibus autism Proceedings (OAP). Since that body's decisions are closely watched, published and accorded the weight of precedent, many lawyers consider the burden of proof for petitioners to be impossibly high before the OAP Panel. It was for this reason that Bailey's attorney, Mark McLaren, elected to opt out of the OAP and try his case separately, even though Bailey has been receiving autism-related services in his home state and was eligible to file a case in the Court's Omnibus autism Proceedings (OAP).

McLaren told us he wanted to avoid the added burden facing petitioners under the media glare and precedential weight attending OAP panel trials. "We considered [the OAP route] because [Bailey] is on the autistic spectrum of disorders, but we thought we could try it separately and apart from the Omnibus, and not as a test case," explained McLaren. "We thought we'd have a better chance if we tried to on its own merit, away from the spotlights and the precedent setting pressures that attend these OAP test cases - and it worked."

Bob Krakow, a leading attorney for vaccine damaged children told that many lawyers are now convinced that filing a claim in the OAP is a losing proposition. "There's a growing conviction that if you have a autistic client who has also been diagnosed with encephalopathy/encephalitis or seizure disorder, you are better off not mentioning the word "autism" if you want to win the case." He recommended instead filing a non autism claim like "mental retardation with seizure disorder" for an autistic client.

Although the vaccine court is mandated to fairly serve the victims of vaccine injuries, their primary purpose and raison d'etre is to protect the vaccine program and vaccine makers. Damages are doled out from a 75-cent tax on every vaccine sold and not from the vaccine makers. "You can understand why special masters, burdened with their duty to protect vaccine programs, might be unwilling to make the direct causal link between autism and vaccines," Krakow observed. "If you ask the big question and answer it in the affirmative, there is a sense that it will damage the vaccine program irreparably."

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Vaccine Court judges are equipped with a draconian armory of weapons deployable against plaintiffs intent on proving the causal connection between vaccines and autism. Jury trials are prohibited. Damages are capped; awards for pain and suffering are strictly limited and punitive damages banned altogether. Vaccine defenders have an army of Department of Justice attorneys with virtually unlimited resources for expert witnesses and other litigation costs. Plaintiffs, in contrast, must fund the up front costs for experts on their own. In a cultural choice that clearly favors defendants, vaccine court gives overwhelming weight to written medical records which are often inaccurate -- over all other forms of testimony and evidence. Observations by parents and other caretakers are given little weight.

Worst of all -- plaintiffs have no right to discovery either against the pharmaceutical industry or the government. Since autism is a behavioral affliction rather than a precisely defined biological injury -- epidemiological studies are critical to establishing its causation. But the greatest source of epidemiological data is the vaccine Safety Datalink (VSD) -- the government maintained medical records of hundreds of thousands of vaccinated children -- which HHS has gone to great lengths to keep out of the hands of plaintiffs' attorneys and independent scientists. Unfortunately the vaccine court has judicially anointed this corrupt concealment by consistently denying every motion by petitioners to view the VSD. The raw data collected in the VSD would undoubtedly provide the epidemiological evidence needed to understand the relationship between vaccines and autism. The absence of such studies makes it easy for judges to say to plaintiffs they have not met their burden of proving causation.

Meanwhile, CDC has actively, openly and systematically suppressed and defunded epidemiological studies that might establish a causal link. CDC has ignored repeated pleadings that it fund peer reviewed studies of unvaccinated American cohorts like the Amish and home-schooled children. At the same time the agency has worked overtime ginning up a series of fatally-flawed European studies purporting to dispute the link. Even a cursory critical examination reveals that the oft-cited Danish, English, and Italian studies are rank tobacco science. Many of them were funded by CDC, a badly compromised agency, performed by vaccine industry scientists, and published in miserably conflicted journals.

Needless to say, the existence of these phony studies, combined with the deliberate dearth of epidemiological evidence makes it easy for the special masters to dodge a politically explosive finding by holding that there is "insufficient evidence."

And, speaking of tobacco, it's worth recalling that for sixty years the tobacco industry successfully defended a product that was killing one out of every five of its customers against thousands of legal actions brought by its victims and their families. Tobacco lawyers protected the cigarette companies by arguing that there was no proven link between tobacco and lung cancer. Bob Krakow sees many parallels. Big tobacco uses the same tactic of manufacturing research that seems to dispute the connection to exploit the burdens on plaintiffs to prove causation. Big tobacco prevailed for six decades even without the help of supportive government agencies deliberately suppressing real science and research. In that sense vaccine victims must leap a much higher hurdle.

Despite the perilous odds stacked against them in vaccine court, the evidence of a vaccine/autism link is so strong that vaccine court judges and government agencies have now recognized at least two theories of how vaccines cause autism: the Vaccine-to-ADEM-to-ASD link in Bailey Banks' case, and vaccine-induced aggravation of an underlying mitochondrial dysfunction that caused full-blown autism in the Hannah Poling case. Both theories are different from those rejected in the three cases last week.

Perhaps, these new disclosures will prompt The Times, with all its influence, to actually make prudent journalistic inquiries into the phony science CDC uses to defend its claims of "vaccine safety." If it does, the paper will realize it has once again been ill used by government agencies in a tragic campaign of public deceit. The Times should make the reasonable demand that the government health agencies finally release the vaccine Safety Datalink for independent scientific research and that CDC and HRSA lift their opposition to genuine epidemiological studies that might finally provide real scientific answers to this debate.

Quotes From the Court Case Transcript

1. Bailey Banks was born 26 October 1998. Petitioner's Exhibit (Pet. Ex.) 2, 3. Bailey's development before his vaccination (both before and after birth) was normal and healthy. Pet. Ex. 1, 5, and 11.

2. At Bailey's fifteenth month check-up on 14 March 2000, no health concerns were noted, and he received the MMR vaccination at issue, his first. Pet. Ex. 11 at 2, Pet. Ex. 5 at 25.

3. Bailey then experienced a seizure 16 days later, on 30 March 2000, during which Bailey's mother witnessed his eyes rolling back and him choking, and he was taken to the Emergency Room. Pet. Ex. 4 at 5, 16, 52-54. At the Emergency Room, Bailey was found to be afebrile and irritable and to have vomited three times. Id. at 52. The treating doctor at the time characterized Bailey's condition as new onset seizure and Bailey was admitted to the hospital for observation, where he remained apparently healthy for the remainder of his stay there. Id. at 4, 14, 53.

4. The following day, on 31 March 2007, an MRI scan was taken of Bailey's brain, which was interpreted by the treating radiologist, Bret Sleight, M.D., as most consistent with a demyelinating process of immune etiology such as may be seen with ADEM or perhaps post-vaccination. Pet. Ex. 4 at 36-37.

5. Bailey then underwent, on 10 April 2000, a full neurological examination, administered by another neurologist, Bryan Philbrook, M.D. Pet. Ex. 5 at 40-42. The examination revealed slight left esotropia and gait and coordination [that 5 was] extremely immature in that his gait was wide based.There was also some hyperextension of both knees noted with poor balance and frequent falling. Id.

Based on these observations, Dr. Philbrook concluded that Bailey suffered from mild gross motor developmental delay and strabismus, and recommended further 6 lab tests, ophthalmology consultation and physical therapy evaluation of Bailey's gait. Id. Dr. Philbrook also noted his medical opinion that [w]e reviewed the patient's MRI and felt that moderate hypomyelination was more likely than a demyelinating process like ADEM, but cannot rule out the latter with certainty. Id.

6. An EEG performed while Bailey slept on 5 May 2000 was unremarkable. Id. at 3. Also, a brain MRI performed on 5 January 2001 evidenced in the same results as the MRI performed on 31 March 2000, with no significant changes since then. Id. at 16-18, 24.

7. On 22 January 2001 Bailey was examined by another neurologist, Frank Berenson, M.D., who noted that Bailey was suffering from global developmental delays, which included features associated with pervasive developmental delay. Id. at 46-48. His conclusion was based on his examination of Bailey, in which he observed that Bailey continued to assume a toddling gait, speech delays, and social interactive difficulties (e.g., poor eye contact and biting), despite suffering no additional seizures since the one suffered on 30 March 2000. Id. Dr. Berenson noted some cognitive progress since Bailey's last neurology visit, including speaking up to ten words, better comprehension, following simple directions, and identifying individual body parts. Id. at 46. Additionally, Bailey's motor skills had improved such that Bailey assisted with dressing and drank from a cup. Id. However, he added that (s)ocially there continues to be difficulty. His eye contact is variable. He has limited to no imaginary pretend play. He continues to bite excessively.... Id. Furthermore, even though Bailey remained alert during the visit, his speech development was found to be delayed. Id. Lastly, Bailey continued to walk with a somewhat toddling gait that Dr. Berenson described as somewhat puppet-like in appearance. Id.

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The Court found, supra, that Bailey's ADEM was both caused-in-fact and proximately caused by his vaccination. It is well-understood that the vaccination at issue can cause ADEM, and the Court found, based upon a full reading and hearing of the pertinent facts in this case, that it did actually cause the ADEM. Furthermore, Bailey's ADEM was severe enough to cause lasting, residual damage, and retarded his developmental progress, which fits under the generalized heading of Pervasive Developmental Delay, or PDD. The Court found that Bailey would not have suffered this delay but for the administration of the MMR vaccine, and that this chain of causation was not too remote, but was rather a proximate sequence of cause and effect leading inexorably from vaccination to Pervasive Developmental Delay.

Based upon that finding of fact, it follows as a natural conclusion that Petitioner has carried his burden of proving to a preponderance that the MMR vaccine at issue actually caused the condition(s) from which Bailey suffered and continues to suffer. Inasmuch as the other elements of ? 300aa-11 (b) and (c) have already been satisfied, the Court holds that Petitioner has met his burden on his case in chief.

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These facts likewise satisfy the Althen test set forth above. Petitioner's theory of PDD caused by vaccine-related ADEM causally connects the vaccination and the ultimate injury, and does so by explaining a logical sequence of cause and effect showing that the vaccination was the ultimate reason for the injury. Also, the timetable in this case for the onset of ADEM fits within the range found to be reasonable in the cases addressing the same question. See Lodge v. Secretary of HHS, No. 92-0697V, 1994 WL 34609, 1994 US Claims LEXIS 19, 31 (Fed. Cl. Spec. Mstr. Jan. 25, 1994), Tufo v. Secretary of HHS, No. 98-0108V, 2001 WL 286911, 2001 US Claims LEXIS 46, 33-34 (Fed. Cl. Spec. Mstr. Mar. 2, 2001), and Saunders v. Secretary of HHS, No. 97-0808V, 2001 WL 1135035, 2001 U.S. Claims LEXIS 225, 9 (Fed. Cl. Spec. Mstr. Sep. 4, 2001).

In contrast, the Court found, as a matter of fact, that Bailey did not suffer from glucose transporter deficiency, or any other factor unrelated to vaccination. Without such a finding, based upon preponderant proof, Respondent has not satisfied his burden under ? 300aa-13(a)(1)(B). To paraphrase a citation provided in Respondent's own Prehearing Memorandum, the possibility of a causal relationship between a factor unrelated and a condition does not support a finding in Respondent's favor. Duncan v. Secretary of HHS, No 90-3809V, 1997 WL 75429 *4, 1997 U.S. Claims LEXIS 73 (Fed. Cl. Spec. Mstr. Feb. 6, 1997).