Child jab victims' records lost

Mail on Sunday 9th February 2003
 
 
Hundreds of vital medical records belonging to children who claim they were
left brain damaged or disabled as a result of routine vaccinations have
been lost by the Government.

The Department of Health has admitted that at least 400 records sent to its
Committee on the Safety of Medicines in the Eighties no longer exist.

As a result, dozens of families with sick children have lost out on
payments from the Government of up to £100,000 under the Vaccine Damage
Payment Scheme.

They have been forced to abandon legal action for compensation because
essential information was missing which may have proved their child did not
have the condition before the vaccine.

Olivia Price, of the Vaccine Victims Support Group, said: 'These families
should now be given the benefit of the doubt.'
Notes about her daughter Melissa, 27, who was left physically and mentally
disabled by the whooping cough vaccine, are among those missing.

The scandal was revealed by Professor Gordon Stewart, who has investigated
dozens of affected children.  He said: 'Parents who cared for their
handicapped children for 40 years have been denied support, compensation
and even an informed hearing by the Department of Health which has managed
to lose all relevant records.'