Lawyer files class-action lawsuit saying vaccinations harmed kids

The families claim their children went from being healthy, active toddlers to having severe neurological disorders such as autism.
The suit contains allegations that have not been proven in court. Klein hasn't yet received a statement of defence from the drug company, though he said he expects one by the end of the month.
Keean East is the nine-year old autistic boy named in the suit to represent the other claimants.
He was a happy, healthy two-year who "achieved every developmental milestone expected of all normally developing children," says the suit, which must first be accepted as a class action by the courts.
But the suit alleges that after receiving at least three shots of the Diptheria Pertussis Tetanus vaccine, something went wrong.
"He stopped talking and only made sounds," the suit says.
"He became unresponsive and withdrawn and made no eye contact. He started injuring himself by banging his head against objects and biting his hands."
The suit, which claims $1 billion in compensation and a further $250 million in punitive damages, blames Thimerasol, an ethyl-mercury derivative used to preserve the vaccines.
The suit says mercury is particularly toxic to infants and that parents were never told it was used in the vaccines.
The suit also says Thimerosal "is not a necessary component of vaccines to make them safe and effective."
It is no longer used in vaccines for infants in the United States and Canada and the American Academy of Pediatrics has called for its elimination from vaccines used on infants worldwide as soon as possible, the suit says.
"The defendant knew or reasonably should have known of the neurotoxic effects of the mercury contained in Thimerosal in the vaccines," alleges the court document.
"The defendant continued to sell the vaccines in Canada when it knew or ought to have known that the Thimerosal in the vaccines is hazardous to the health of infants."
Thimerasol was used until the mid- to late-1990s.
Klein said it will take up to 10 months before the courts are expected to rule on whether to certify the suit as a class-action. If the courts reject the class-action, Klein said he will represent families in individual court actions against the company.
In a statement, Shirley Ernstberger, spokeswoman from Aventis Pasteur, said her company rejects the allegations in Klein's statement of claim and will "vigorously defend the action.
"All products produced by the company and marketed in Canada were approved by Health Canada at all times.
"The company has a long and proud tradition in Canada of protecting and safeguarding the health of children."
Each year, Aventis Pasteur makes one billion doses of vaccines for distribution to 400 million patients worldwide.
During the 1990s, Aventis-Pasteur bought Ontario's Connaught Laboratories, then maker of most Canadian vaccines.
Audra East, of Fort Fraser, Ont., is Keean's mother.
"No one at public health ever told us there might be brain damage from a vaccination, or that they used Thimerasol in the vaccines," she said in an interview.
When she saw a U.S. commercial advising parents about a class action lawsuit on behalf of autistic children, she picked up the phone and eventually contacted Klein.
Klein's clients suffer from a variety of neurological illnesses other than autism, including attention deficit disorder, Aspergers's syndrome, and seizure disorders.
Anna McCullough of Edmonton joined Klein's lawsuit on behalf of her daughter Amanda.
At six months old, Amanda's parents took her to a public health clinic for her third DPT shot.
Her mother said the happy, healthy baby was grey and lifeless within the hour. She was rushed to hospital and resuscitated, but she began having uncontrolled seizures.
"They gave her enough Valium to sedate a 200 lb. man," said Anna McCullough in an interview.
Amanda recovered and left the hospital but within weeks she began having seizures. She spent 50 per cent of her life in hospital during the next two years.
By the time Amanda was seven, she was taking 18 pills a day and still had seizures.
Anna founded a support group for parents with children who had uncontrollable seizures.
"I had a steady stream of parents coming though my living room and all of us had one thing in common: the immunizations," she said.
Klein said he got involved after American lawyers, swamped by hundreds of calls from Canadian families, called him.
"I went to Health Canada's Web site and the B.C. Centre for Disease Control and they said there was no Thimerasol in Canadian vaccines," said Klein.
But he said he looked in an old Canadian Pharmaceuticals and Specialties book, a handbook outlining pharmaceutical information provided by drug manufacturers, and found that while Thimerasol may not be in use now, it was for years.
The United States enacted a national, no-fault vaccine-injury compensation act in 1986, but currently 10 law firms in 25 states are engaged in the Thimerasol national class action suit.
A 1999 report by the American Academy of Pediatrics to Clinicians stated potential dangers of Thimerasol.
"As part of an ongoing review of biologic products, the FDA has determined that infants who receive Thimerasol-containing vaccines at several visits may be exposed to more mercury than recommended by federal guidelines for total mercury exposure," the report states.
In 1994, the US Food and Drug Administration banned the use of Thimerasol in contact lens solutions and other cosmetics.
In 1999, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommended that pharmaceutical companies eliminate Thimerasol as a preservative in vaccines.
In October of 2001, Health Canada's Division of Immunization, Centre for Infectious Diseases issued a report recommending that "by 2005 every Canadian should have access to a vaccine injury compensation program for long-term sequel caused by vaccines."
The report explored the social marketing of vaccination programs and also emphasized that the immunization program has been effective and must be perceived to be safe by the public.
Health Canada noted that the decision to compensate victims of vaccine-injury would be a political one.