Lawsuit Seeks Justice for Vaccine Injury Victim

15 March 2006

When Lucia Morgan submitted to a mandatory hepatitis B vaccine in 1994 as a condition of employment for the Ontario Government's Parkdale Community Health Centre, she was not informed by the City of Toronto health nurse who administered the first injection of a series of three shots of possible health risks associated with the vaccine or adverse reactions that might ensue. A lawsuit launched on Morgan's behalf seeks damages from the City of Toronto for multiple injuries and well documented functional brain injury resulting from adverse reactions to the hepatitis B vaccine.

Lucia Morgan was hired by the Parkdale Centre to work as a social worker with street people and needle exchange programs. Within half an hour after the first injection she experienced severe flu like symptoms and fatigue. When Morgan informed the Toronto Health Department about her reaction, she was berated for being an anti-vaccine "crackpot". The City of Toronto did not file a vaccine adverse event report as required by the Ontario Health Protection and Promotion Act.

Two months later, shortly after receiving the second challenge immunization, she experienced similar, but even more severe symptoms from which she did not recover and left work permanently. Her health deteriorated dramatically. No longer able to work and bedridden for the next 6 months, she suffered multiple disabilities including diminished concentration, short and long term memory loss, chronic joint pain, chronic exhaustion, irritable bowel syndrome, severe headaches, blurred vision, swollen glands, reduced hearing, decreased co-ordination, and other debilitating symptoms. Unknown to her, all of these complaints had been documented in the medical literature.

Two years prior to the vaccine reaction and injury, Morgan had completed a Masters degree in Education. She was a vibrant and outgoing woman who was involved in many diverse activities. Now she can barely read or hold a conversation. A Brain Spect revealed damage to frontal and temporal lobes and base of cerebellum, many left posterior parietal problems, and aberrant holes in gray matter. There was also injury to the middle cerebral artery on both sides. In other words, Lucia Morgan had sustained extensive, irreversible functional brain injury triggered by what appears to be an autoimmune reaction to hepatitis B vaccine.

Morgan has been investigated and treated by her family physician and a number of specialists, including Dr. Byron Hyde of the Nightingale Research Institute in Ottawa, all of whom confirm that her injury and present symptoms relate to the two hepatitis B injections of July and September 1994. Dr. Hyde has investigated multiple hepatitis B vaccine injured patients.

Unlike many western countries which recognize and compensate vaccine injuries, Canada offers no recognition nor compensation when vaccine damage occurs - except for the province of Quebec. Since 1987, the U.S. government has paid out in excess of 1 billion dollars in compensation to vaccine injury victims

The trial commenced on Monday March 6, 2006 before Madam Justice Mary Ann Sanderson of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in Toronto and is expected to continue for 4 or 5 weeks.

For further information: contact the law firm of Richard E. Anka, Brans Lehun Baldwin LLP, 120 Adelaide St. West, Suite 2401, M5H 1T1, phone (416) 601-1030, fax (416) 601-0655, email: reanka@blbcdnlaw.com; or contact VRAN-Vaccination Risk Awareness Network: info@vran.org - (250) 355-2525

Source: newswire

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