Jordan Maza v. HHS - MMR, encephalitis (2005)

Petitioners Jennifer and Russell Maza filed a petition for compensation under the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act on November 6, 2003, alleging that their son, Jordan Maza, suffered encephalitis as a result of receiving the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine. Jordan Maza was born on November 11, 1999, and received the MMR vaccine on November 13, 2000.

His mother reported that he developed a fever on December 4, 2000, twenty-one days after vaccination. On December 7, 2000, Jordan was taken to South Nassau Community Hospital with a fever, and during that visit, he suffered a seizure.

He was transferred to Winthrop University Hospital on December 9, 2000, where he was diagnosed with an unspecified viral disease of the nervous system, and an MRI showed findings compatible with viral encephalitis. Jordan was discharged on December 24, 2000, but returned on January 12, 2001, with seizures and a headache, at which time right otitis media was diagnosed.

Subsequent neurological examinations through January 2003 confirmed encephalitis-seizure disorder-post viral. Dr.

Vijaya L. Atluru, in a letter dated May 2, 2003, stated he had "considered the possibility" of MMR vaccine-related encephalitis.

At a hearing in March 2005, petitioners' expert, Dr. Mitchell Weiler, testified that the MMR vaccine must have caused Jordan's encephalitis because he saw no proof that a virus caused it, noting that a December 2000 cerebrospinal fluid test showed no viral abnormalities.

Dr. Weiler also referenced the Vaccine Injury Table, suggesting a possible connection based on the timing of symptoms, although he acknowledged that the specific window for encephalitis (5-15 days) did not apply, and he discussed a different window (7-30 days) applicable to idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP), a condition unrelated to encephalitis.

The government's expert, Dr. John MacDonald, testified that the absence of viral abnormalities in the cerebrospinal fluid did not rule out a viral cause and that the MMR vaccine was not the cause of Jordan's encephalitis.

The Special Master denied the petition, finding that the petitioners failed to demonstrate causation. The Special Master ruled that Jordan's symptoms did not occur within the statutorily prescribed period for a Table injury and that the petitioners did not prove causation-in-fact.

The Court of Federal Claims, in an opinion by Judge Hodges, affirmed the Special Master's decision on July 22, 2005. The court held that proof by elimination, assuming no viral cause means the vaccine must be the cause, does not satisfy the requirement to affirmatively demonstrate a medical theory connecting the vaccination to the injury.

The court noted that Dr. Weiler's theory was effectively based on the "absence of evidence of other causes," which had been held insufficient in prior cases.

The court concluded that temporal association alone, with symptoms appearing twenty-four days after vaccination, was not enough to establish causation, and that the absence of proof of another cause does not itself establish vaccine causation. The petition was denied.