Chase Boatmon & Maurina Cupid, Parents Of J.B., Deceased v. HHS - DTaP, Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) (2018)

On August 27, 2013, Chase Boatmon and Maurina Cupid, parents of J.B., deceased, filed a petition under the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program. They alleged that vaccinations administered to J.B. on September 2, 2011, caused his death from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) on September 3, 2011.

J.B. was born prematurely on April 7, 2011. He received multiple vaccinations on September 2, 2011.

His parents reported he was quiet and withdrawn that day, had a fever that evening, and was distant and feverish the next morning. He was found unresponsive in his crib and pronounced dead later that day.

The medical examiner classified the cause of death as SIDS, noting no specific anatomical or microscopic findings. Petitioners' expert, Dr.

Douglas C. Miller, a neuropathologist, theorized that vaccines triggered a cytokine response that, in an infant with an underlying brainstem defect (a component of the Triple Risk Model for SIDS), could lead to respiratory arrest.

Respondent's experts, Dr. Christine T.

McCusker, a pediatric immunologist, and Dr. Brent Harris, a neuropathologist, disputed this theory.

Dr. McCusker argued that cytokines play a protective role and that exogenous stressors like sleep position are mechanical, not neurochemical.

Dr. Harris found no pathological findings indicating a vaccine-related death.

The Special Master, Thomas L. Gowen, initially ruled in favor of the petitioners, finding entitlement based on the Althen test, concluding that the vaccines likely caused J.B.'s death by stimulating inflammatory cytokines that suppressed his respiratory response system.

The Special Master awarded compensation in the amount of $300,000.00. However, the Court of Federal Claims, Judge Thomas C.

Wheeler presiding, reviewed the decision. The Court found that the Special Master applied too low a standard of proof and that the petitioners' theory, which had not been accepted by other medical authorities or Special Masters in similar cases, was not sufficiently supported by the evidence.

Consequently, the Court reversed the Special Master's decision, vacated the judgment, and dismissed the petition.