There has to be more to this story. Think of the millions of people who changed diapers during this time and had no advese effects. This guy must have had a very weak system. How does an adult get polio over a vaccine and not the infant? The drug manufacturer had better appeal this. I find it humerous that the plaintiff was a “Wall Street executive”. When’s the last time you heard one changing a diaper? Add to it the fact he lives in Staten Island and bingo.
In May 1979, based upon advice from Dr. Schwartz, plaintiffs Dominick and Elizabeth Tenuto presented their five month old daughter to him for a second dosage of an oral poliomyelitis vaccine manufactured by defendant Lederle Laboratories, trade named “Orimune.” Orimune and other similar oral vaccines consist of three live but weakened strains of the polio virus. Although the pharmaceutical manufacturer had rendered the viruses incapable of producing paralytic disease in a person receiving the vaccine, they cause the production of antibodies which will resist an attack by a wild or virulent polio virus. Typically, oral polio vaccines are administered to infants during their first year of life.
While an oral polio vaccine of live viruses has significant clinical advantages over the alternative, original method of polio vaccination (discovered by Dr. Jonas Salk) involving injection of a vaccine containing killed or inactivated polio virus strains, oral vaccines carry certain unique risks. Notably, as is described in detail in Plummer v Lederle Laboratories (819 F2d 349, 351-353, cert denied 484 US 898), on a rare but statistically predictable basis, the live viruses lodging in the infant recipient’s gastrointestinal tract may grow and revert to virulent form. When those wild viruses are later discharged from the infant’s bowel in excretion or from the mouth in saliva, contact with the feces or saliva by the child’s adult caretakers may result in infection and, in the case of vulnerable adults (i.e., unvaccinated or where immunization has weakened over time), may result in paralytic polio.
The foregoing risk of parental “contact” polio derived from oral vaccination of a child, has been known since 1961. By the 1970s, United States governmental health officials were recommending that consumers be advised of the risks as well as benefits of oral polio vaccines. Accordingly, as of 1977, defendant Lederle Laboratories included in its Orimune package insert some description of the risks and the recommendation, also reproduced in the Physician’s Desk Reference, that such danger be communicated to the parents when an infant is to be orally vaccinated, so that suitable precautions can be taken. The insert also warned against injection of the vaccine directly into the bloodstream.[n.1]
Plaintiffs allege that Dr. Schwartz, although informed that Mr. Tenuto was about to undergo elective surgery, never inquired as to whether he had previously been vaccinated against polio nor advised plaintiffs of the risk of incurring contact polio and of the precautions necessary to prevent exposure, particularly in light of the surgical wound which would result from the immediately impending surgery of Mr. Tenuto.
As a consequence, in caring for his daughter following his operation, Mr. Tenuto was exposed to virulent polio viruses. Within 30 days of the infant’s vaccination, Mr. Tenuto began to exhibit the symptoms of paralytic poliomyelitis and was then hospitalized and diagnosed as afflicted with that disease. His polio has rendered him a permanent paraplegic. Plaintiffs submitted, in camera, an affidavit from a qualified scientific expert that he was infected as a result of the oral vaccine administered to his daughter by Dr. Schwartz. A second affidavit, from a medical expert, expressed an opinion that, at the time the vaccine was administered to plaintiffs’ infant daughter, the standard of medical care required advising parents of the risk of contact polio and that appropriate precautions should be taken.
15mil care plan that the taxpayers will be responsible for without the award.
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Oh Brother!!!
There has to be more to this story. Think of the millions of people who changed diapers during this time and had no advese effects. This guy must have had a very weak system. How does an adult get polio over a vaccine and not the infant? The drug manufacturer had better appeal this. I find it humerous that the plaintiff was a “Wall Street executive”. When’s the last time you heard one changing a diaper? Add to it the fact he lives in Staten Island and bingo.
In May 1979, based upon advice from Dr. Schwartz, plaintiffs Dominick and Elizabeth Tenuto presented their five month old daughter to him for a second dosage of an oral poliomyelitis vaccine manufactured by defendant Lederle Laboratories, trade named “Orimune.” Orimune and other similar oral vaccines consist of three live but weakened strains of the polio virus. Although the pharmaceutical manufacturer had rendered the viruses incapable of producing paralytic disease in a person receiving the vaccine, they cause the production of antibodies which will resist an attack by a wild or virulent polio virus. Typically, oral polio vaccines are administered to infants during their first year of life.
While an oral polio vaccine of live viruses has significant clinical advantages over the alternative, original method of polio vaccination (discovered by Dr. Jonas Salk) involving injection of a vaccine containing killed or inactivated polio virus strains, oral vaccines carry certain unique risks. Notably, as is described in detail in Plummer v Lederle Laboratories (819 F2d 349, 351-353, cert denied 484 US 898), on a rare but statistically predictable basis, the live viruses lodging in the infant recipient’s gastrointestinal tract may grow and revert to virulent form. When those wild viruses are later discharged from the infant’s bowel in excretion or from the mouth in saliva, contact with the feces or saliva by the child’s adult caretakers may result in infection and, in the case of vulnerable adults (i.e., unvaccinated or where immunization has weakened over time), may result in paralytic polio.
The foregoing risk of parental “contact” polio derived from oral vaccination of a child, has been known since 1961. By the 1970s, United States governmental health officials were recommending that consumers be advised of the risks as well as benefits of oral polio vaccines. Accordingly, as of 1977, defendant Lederle Laboratories included in its Orimune package insert some description of the risks and the recommendation, also reproduced in the Physician’s Desk Reference, that such danger be communicated to the parents when an infant is to be orally vaccinated, so that suitable precautions can be taken. The insert also warned against injection of the vaccine directly into the bloodstream.[n.1]
Plaintiffs allege that Dr. Schwartz, although informed that Mr. Tenuto was about to undergo elective surgery, never inquired as to whether he had previously been vaccinated against polio nor advised plaintiffs of the risk of incurring contact polio and of the precautions necessary to prevent exposure, particularly in light of the surgical wound which would result from the immediately impending surgery of Mr. Tenuto.
As a consequence, in caring for his daughter following his operation, Mr. Tenuto was exposed to virulent polio viruses. Within 30 days of the infant’s vaccination, Mr. Tenuto began to exhibit the symptoms of paralytic poliomyelitis and was then hospitalized and diagnosed as afflicted with that disease. His polio has rendered him a permanent paraplegic. Plaintiffs submitted, in camera, an affidavit from a qualified scientific expert that he was infected as a result of the oral vaccine administered to his daughter by Dr. Schwartz. A second affidavit, from a medical expert, expressed an opinion that, at the time the vaccine was administered to plaintiffs’ infant daughter, the standard of medical care required advising parents of the risk of contact polio and that appropriate precautions should be taken.
15mil care plan that the taxpayers will be responsible for without the award.
I see where -ex- comes from.
Thanks, Bob.
The information you provided was quite informative. Now it makes sense where he contracted the polio.
However, it does not make sense why he waited until now to sue for injuries. Would not some statute of limitations apply?