Shanelle Mattus-Lang v. HHS - DTaP, seizure disorder with cognitive and developmental delays (2022)

On February 4, 2015, Shanelle Mattus-Lang, as parent and legal representative of her minor son, D.J.W., filed a petition alleging that a DTaP-IPV vaccine administered on February 6, 2012, caused D.J.W. to suffer from a seizure disorder with cognitive and developmental delays. D.J.W. was born on February 27, 2007, making him nearly five years old at the time of vaccination.

Seven days after the vaccination, D.J.W. experienced his first seizure. Over the next several years, D.J.W. was diagnosed with Doose syndrome and, in May 2019, with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).

Petitioner's expert, Dr. Yuval Shafrir, argued that D.J.W.'s condition was an autoimmune epileptic encephalopathy triggered by the vaccine, and that his autistic symptoms were a result of the seizures, not a separate diagnosis.

Respondent's experts, Dr. Gregory Holmes and Dr.

Max Wiznitzer, contended that Doose syndrome is primarily genetic and that ASD and epileptic encephalopathy are comorbidities that do not have a vaccine-induced autoimmune etiology. The public decision does not describe the specific onset of symptoms, the exact nature of the cognitive and developmental delays prior to the ASD diagnosis, or the specific treatments D.J.W. received beyond anti-seizure medications and IVIG.

The court found that D.J.W.'s autism diagnosis could not be separated from any encephalopathy diagnosis, as all evidence presented prior to the autism diagnosis linked his developmental delays to the vaccine. The court also found insufficient evidence that D.J.W.'s seizures had an autoimmune etiology, noting that Doose syndrome is widely considered to have a genetic cause.

Ultimately, the court dismissed the petition, finding that Petitioner failed to establish by a preponderance of the evidence that D.J.W.'s developmental delay was separate from his autism diagnosis or that his encephalopathy had an autoimmune pathogenesis that could be vaccine-caused. The claim was denied.

Petitioner's counsel was Elizabeth Martin Muldowney. Respondent's counsel was Camille M.

Collett. The Special Master was Herbrina Sanders.