The Vaccine Compensation Fund had been created to protect vaccine manufacturing companies like Merck, GSK, and Pfizer should vaccines like Pertussis bring a host of litigation harmful to the overall company. Coincidentally, the reason the Fund was started is because of litigation from the original version of the Pertussis vaccine. This original formula became illegal to sell in the US, yet it is still being sold to 3rd world countries because its manufacturing costs are still far cheaper and there are no regulatory safeguards in those regions to protect the people from harm.
I also found out, that in order to file for compensation from the Fund, I’d have to do it within 2 years of taking the vaccine, show a causal relationship, and exhibit a physical disability due to the adverse reaction to the vaccine. At the time, in Fall 2007, no adverse reactions were listed except an irritation at the injection site which was the same as every other vaccine. My notion that the Pertussis vaccine had caused my seizure disorder was only an inference based on hearsay from previous pertussis vaccination litigation. I also wasn’t disabled, and couldn’t show damage to my brain.
All I had were grievances that I couldn’t put a real valid value on. All I had to go on at this point was that life wasn’t fair and I had to suck it up and try to make up my college credits as quickly as possible to graduate on time. I was so determined that I ended up graduating a semester earlier than if I had never dropped out. I even found an opportunity to live and intern a summer in DC while going to school at a Georgetown University.
I loved my Summer in DC, however, two days before graduation, I had another large seizure and couldn’t attend.I was sharing a room in a dorm with 4 other roommates when this happened. I woke up on the floor. with a blanket thrown over me and a very bad headache, feeling as though I might have had a seizure. It was still in the middle of the night and my roommate was in her bed sleeping. I felt very embarrassed, and I got up off the floor and crawled back into my bed. The next morning I heard her get up, get ready for work, and leave. When I saw her later that day, I was still in bed. I knew that I had a seizure and I asked her why I woke up in the middle of the night on the floor with a blanket thrown over me.
I also asked her why I had a massive knot on my head. She said she woke up to me having a seizure because my head was hitting the desk between both our beds and that she saw me fall off the bed onto the floor. She said that because I had told her not to try to stop me if I ever seized, that’s what she did. She also had heard me get up later that night and get back into bed, so she felt that it was fine that she just get up and go to work as I slept.Hearing this, all I could feel was a mixture of anger and shame. I may have crawled back into bed, but I could barely walk. I felt beat up and betrayed. I wasn’t able to attend my graduation and I felt extremely angry and sad as I watched my roommate get ready to leave for the party.
