AAP's Dr. Tayloe knows about adverse vaccine reactions

[Guest guest]

This $3.5 million 1985 verdict against Dr. Tayloe help bring about the Vaccine

Court in

1986.

Medical Malpractice/Negligent Administration of the DPT Vaccine

$3,500,000 Jury Verdict, May 1, 1985

http://www.karneylaw.com/CM/VerdictsSettlements/top_5_verdicts_settlements.asp

The Minor Plaintiff, Bernard Forehand, Jr., was seriously injured when

the Defendant Pediatrician's Nurse failed to communicate to the

Defendant Pediatrician, Tayloe that the Minor Plaintiff had an

adverse reaction to the first vaccination shot. The administration of

the second shot left the Minor Plaintiff with a significant brain

injury. The Defendant Pediatrician, Tayloe, who at that time was

the President of the National Pediatric Association, strenuously

fought this case all the way to a jury verdict. On May 1, 1985, the

jury handed down what was at that time the largest jury verdict in a

medical malpractice case in the State of North Carolina, in the sum of

3.5 million dollars.

***********

Following is a newsletter article that I (Barbara Loe Fisher) wrote in the

summer of 1985

on the Forehand lawsuit:

" In May, a North Carolina jury in the Wilmington U.S. District Court

decided that Tayloe, M.D. and T. Stallings, M.D., of

Washington Pediatrics, P.A., were guilty of medical malpractice in the

pertussis vaccine-induced brain damage suffered by Beau Forehand, Jr.

The child was awarded $3.5 million in compensatory damages by the jury

but the judge overturned the verdict and it was appealed.

It was the highest medical malpractice award in North Carolina

history. Beau was represented by attorneys Anne Werum Lambright and

Polling of the ton West Virginia firm of Preiser and

. The defense claimed that the two doctors were following the

vaccination guidelines contained in the American Academy of Pediatrics

1970's " Red Book " which was in effect at the time Beau Forehand

received his first DPT shot in January of 1974.

Beau reacted to his first short with a 103 degree fever and

unconsolable crying, which his mother reported to the doctors. Six

weeks later, Beau had a febrile seizure and was hospitalized. However,

despite the reaction to his first shot and the subsequent seizure, he

was given another DPT shot even though he had a cold and a slight

fever at the time of the second vaccination. Within three hours of his

second DPT shot he went into a major seizure and has had an

uncontrolled seizure disorder ever since. He was left with severe

mental retardation.

The 1970 RedBook did not list unconsolable crying, a fever of 103

degrees, a history of convulsions or a cold at the time of vaccination

as contraindications to the pertussis vaccine. Attorney Lambright

stated that the jury's verdict in the case sent a clear message to

physicians that " The American Academy of Pediatrics Red Book should

not be used as the sole guide to contraindications or adverse

reactions to vaccines. The basic premise in the Forehand case is that

doctors have to use their common sense, medical training, skill,

knowledge and experience to make appropriate determinations for

vaccination on a case by case basis. "

If the jury's verdict is upheld on appeal, the Forehand case will

be an important precedent-setting case. It would mean that individual

physicians are responsible for obtaining knowledge and making

decisions about the advisability of vaccination in individual cases

which go beyond automatic reliance on the recommendations listed by

the AAP or the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices

(ACIP). Examples of additional information available to physicians are

the vaccine manufacturer's product inserts included in vaccine

packages. which historically have listed more contraindications than

those listed by either the AAP or ACIP, and the more than 40 years of

scientific literature on the subject. "

In a Winter 1986 newsletter, I wrote:

" On September 18, 1986, Forehand V. Tayloe and Stallings was

settled for $1.1 million in North Carolina. A North Carolina jury had

concluded that two pediatricians were negligent in the pertussis

vaccine induced brain damage of Beau Forehand, Jr. and had awarded the

boy and his parents $3.3 million. The judge overturned the verdict and

the case was appealed on behalf of Beau by the law firm of Preiser and

, of ton, West Virginia, before the Sept. 18 settlement

ended the lawsuit. "

BRIEF VACCINE INJURY COMPENSATION SYSTEM (VICP) BACKGROUND:

The Forehand settlement was one of a series of DPT vaccine

malpractice cases against negligent physicians, as well as a few high

profile punitive damage awards for DPT vaccine brain damage that went

against vaccine manufacturers between 1981-1985 which persuaded

Congress that both drug companies making vaccines and doctors giving

vaccines should be protected from liability for vaccine injuries and

deaths. The vaccine manufacturers threatened to leave the country with

no vaccine if they did not get protection. Doctors threatened to stop

giving vaccines if they weren't protected. Both doctors and the

companies wanted a federal compensation system that banned all vaccine

injury lawsuits for all time. We fought for protection of the right to

access the civil justice system to sue companies or doctors if the

child was turned down for federal compensation or offered too little

or if it could be proved the vaccine manufacturer engaged in criminal

fraud or gross negligence in the manufacture the vaccine or the doctor

did the same in administering the vaccine.

I hope this is helpful.

Best,

Barbara