UK MMR mum makes legal history (Jackie Fletcher)

[Guest guest]

http://www.wigantoday.net/wigannews/MMR-mum-makes-legal-history.5952381.jp

MMR mum makes legal historyBy

Graham

A mum's 17-year compensation battle for her severely disabled son is set

to make legal history.

Jackie Fletcher has become the first person in the UK to be granted a

form of legal aid to help take a claim to a Vaccine Damage Payment Unit

tribunal.

But while the successful application for " exceptional funding "

sets an important precedent, a subsequent victory would have more

symbolic and political significance for the Golborne family than anything

financial

The chance of a multi-million-pound pay-out from the manufacturers of the

MMR vaccine they claim ruined toddler 's health ended in farce in

2007 when the Fletchers discovered that their legal team had been

pursuing the wrong drug company for 10 years.

By the time the cock-up was spotted – it had been initially caused by a

nurse innocently writing a wrong number on the infant's medical notes but

should have been picked up by the lawyers soon after – Jackie and husband

had been " timed out " to bring a lawsuit against the real

manufacturers, Merck.

The only option then left to them was to take 's case back to the

tribunal which had dismissed the case out of hand more than a decade

earlier.

And while the majority of the medical establishment remains set against

links between the measles, mumps and rubella jab and conditions such as

autism and Crohn's disease, the Fletchers now have the backing of an

eminent American scientist who will testify for them.

Consultant paediatric neurologist Dr Marcel Kingsbourne has already

successfully pleaded the case for vaccine-damaged children in the US and

written a paper saying that he believes 's epilepsy was caused by

the measles part of the vaccine he was given at 10 months.

turned 18 in October, but Jackie says that unlike his two older

brothers, this event did not see him, in a real sense, become a man.

Rather she still has a child of 14 months who has only a few words in his

vocabulary and needs 24-hour care.

The epilepsy, which has never been brought under control and causes

around a dozen fits a week, has left him with neurological problems, a

weakness in his left side which means he is now confined to a wheelchair,

immune deficiencies, autistic traits and, more recently, an inflamed

oesophagus.

Jackie, who formed the national pressure group Jabs to highlight the

alleged serious side-effects of the MMR inoculation, said she was hoping

that the London tribunal next year would finally give the family some

kind of positive result.

She said: " What we really wanted to do was take on the manufacturer

of the vaccine whom we blame, but because our solicitors messed up, that

opportunity has gone.

" What is left to us is to go to the Vaccine Damage Payment Unit and

we were delighted that our present solicitor has set a precedent by

getting exceptional funding.

" This is a limited amount which will pay for the solicitor, a

barrister and for Dr Kinsbourne to give evidence via either audio or

video link from America.

" Never before has this funding been granted by the Legal Services

Commission for a vaccine damage case so it is as important for other

people's fight for justice as it is ours. "

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Last Updated: 03 January 2010 1:39 PM Source: Wigan Evening Post Location: Wigan

Sheri Nakken, R.N., MA, Hahnemannian

Homeopath

Vaccination Information & Choice Network, Washington State, USA

Vaccines -

http://vaccinationdangers.wordpress.com/

Vaccine Dangers, Childhood Disease Classes & Homeopathy

Online/email courses - next classes start January 6 & 7

http://www.wellwithin1.com/vaccineclass.htm or

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