Documenting nine years inside the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP) to expose structural flaws and demand legislative overhaul.
How an administrative system created to be non-adversarial evolved into an obstacle course for grieving parents.
On December 29, 2017, we filed Case #17-2061V in the United States Court of Federal Claims. Norah passed away exactly seven days following her MMRV and Hepatitis A vaccinations, while her fraternal twin sister Lucy suffered an acute febrile hospital event that exact same evening. We initiated this petition to bring clinical accountability and establish an official record.
In May 2018, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) filed its formal Rule 4 Report contesting the claim. Rather than an objective medical inquiry, the proceedings transitioned into an adversarial battle of expert reports, with Department of Justice litigators contesting immunological causation and live-virus replication kinetics.
Following initial administrative resistance, our legal team took the case to the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. The Federal Circuit vacated the tribunal's denial and remanded the case back to evaluate landmark emerging scientific literature—most notably the 2024 NYU Langone video study published in Neurology documenting terminal sleep posture and febrile convulsive events in toddlers.
After nine years of tireless advocacy, major historical milestones have been reached on the official record. The proceedings have permanently exposed the structural breakdown of the "vaccine court":
What Comes Next: While our legal advocacy continues, our unsealed 436-document evidentiary archive and our investigative memoir, Something Happened to Norah, are currently being finalized. More details are coming soon.
The National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986 cannot be fixed with minor procedural adjustments. Congress must enact structural reform.
End blanket product immunity so vaccine manufacturers face real discovery and product liability incentives to innovate safer formulations.
Enforce the true statutory preponderance of evidence standard instead of allowing Special Masters to demand scientifically impossible retrospective proofs.
Modernize the administrative Injury Table to reflect current neuropathology, video-verified seizures, and live-virus replication kinetic studies.
Implement strict statutory adjudication deadlines with automatic remedies so grieving families are never trapped in decade-long delays.
Unseal proceeding transcripts, DOJ expert reports, and HHS deliberations so independent scientists and clinicians can scrutinize safety signals.