The Eastern Health Board is concerned that there could be "catastrophic consequences" if a jury hearing the inquest into the death of a young Dublin man linked that death with the three-in-one vaccine, the High Court was told yesterday.
Mr Justice McCracken granted the board leave to challenge, by way of judicial review, the conduct of the inquest into the death of Mr Alan Duffy (22) by the Dublin City Coroner, Dr Brian Farrell. The EHB claims Dr Farrell has exceeded his powers in his conduct of the inquest.
On December 4th, 1997 the inquest opened with evidence from medical personnel and from Mr Duffy's parents. After the board expressed concern about the conduct of the inquest and said it wished to consider its position, Dr Farrell adjourned it to April 19th.
In court yesterday Mr Michael McDowell SC, for the EHB, said it was taking the present challenge because it was very concerned that the public should not be told by a six-person jury, in the absence of medical evidence, that the three-in-one vaccine is dangerous.
Mr McDowell said there was sufficient evidence available in the two years following Mr Duffy's death for the coroner to conclude that death was caused by pneumonia. There was no contrary evidence.
Counsel said the coroner had embarked on a form of inquiry that touched issues specifically precluded by the 1962 Coroner's Act. If the inquest proceeded, a jury was going to be asked, in the absence of medical evidence, if there was a link between the death and the vaccine.
The EHB was very concerned that the public should not be told by six people that the vaccine was dangerous, which would be a highly speculative finding. If six people were asked to decide highly complex medical issues and if they issued a general recommendation, it could have catastrophic consequences.
In an affidavit on behalf of the EHB, solicitor Mr Henry Colley said Mr Duffy was born in Dublin on May 11th, 1973 and was shortly afterwards diagnosed as suffering from a moderate form of mental retardation.
He was admitted to the Mater Hospital, Dublin on December 21st, 1995 and died 10 days later from what was stated in the medical certificate to be "aspirational pneumonia."
His parents, Kevin and Vera Duffy, did not accept that cause of death and an inquest began to consider any possible connection between his death and the three-in-one vaccine administered to him when an infant between October 1973 and February 1974.
Mr Colley said the health board was not given any indication that "a wide number of medical witnesses" would be present.
At the inquest Dr Padraig Mac Mathuna, consultant physician at the Mater Hospital, read a medical report - not seen by the EHB - to the effect that Mr Duffy had severe pneumonia and irreversible brain damage "associated with childcare". Dr Mac Mathuna had also said one of the medical staff had written "cerebral palsy" as a secondary cause of death on the medical certificate.
Dr Mac Mathuna was unwilling to attribute Mr Duffy's death to the immunisation he had received as a baby, Mr Colley said.
The dead man's mother told the inquest that her pregnancy was normal. Mrs Duffy said she was not asked any questions concerning her family history at the time of the first injection of the three-in-one vaccine on October 17th, 1973.
Alan had cried all night. Later he started to throw up his bottles and she was told he was colic. She was told after examination by the Edenmore Health Clinic that no long-term problems were envisaged.
During this period, Mrs Duffy claimed, she noticed sudden jerking in her baby, a draining of colour from his face, and eyes rolling, but was unaware this was a form of convulsion. Alan got his third injection on February 5th, 1974 and she was later told he was suffering from moderate mental retardation.
She had asked how Alan had changed so much but got no answers, and was advised not to have any more children. Alan was cared for in St Michael's House where, Mrs Duffy claimed, she was told that the deterioration in his mental condition was due to severe mental handicap and that a doctor confirmed this was due to the three-in-one injection.
By the time Alan died in 1995 he was unable to communicate with anybody.
A retired professor of paediatrics at Trinity College, Dublin, Dr Niall O'Donohue, told the inquest that a test carried out in August 1974 showed Alan had epilepsy, which was very common in mentally handicapped children with an IQ of less than 50, and which had probably set in between the second and third immunisation.
The professor had stated unequivocally that there was no evidence to link Alan's tragic circumstances with the vaccine.
Mr Colley said that following evidence from the doctors and the parents, the EHB's lawyers expressed reservations about the inquest and said it was turning into a tribunal of inquiry. The inquest was adjourned to April 19th next.
On March 29th last it was confirmed that the coroner proposed to call further evidence and had contacted Glaxo (Ireland) Ltd to get evidence on the pertussis vaccine batches manufactured by it, Mr Colley said.