A father of three contracted polio most probably through contact with nappies of his infant daughter just days after she was inoculated with the polio vaccine, the High Court was told yesterday.
Mr Anthony Blanche now walks with a pronounced limp and will be in a wheelchair within five years, the court heard.
Mr Blanche (42), of Belgrove, Ballybrittas, Co Laois, who runs a courier business and had been a keen hill-walker, never received the polio vaccine himself.
His case is that he should have been warned by the doctor who inoculated his daughter, Isabel, in 1994 of the dangers to any non-immunised person of contracting polio and should have been vaccinated at the same time as his daughter.
He also claims the Midland Health Board failed to pass on to doctors information, particularly a 1984 Department of Health circular, relating to the possibility of non-immunised persons contracting polio following vaccination of children and advising that non-immunised persons in close contact with vaccinated children should be inoculated at the same time.
Mr Blanche is seeking damages for alleged negligence by the MHB and by two doctors, Dr Fergus McKeagney and Dr Charles McKeagney, with a practice at Main Street, Portarlington.
The court was told that Dr Fergus McKeagney inoculated Mr Blanche's infant daughter in March 1994 with the polio vaccine. Dr Charles McKeagney was Mr Blanche's GP and dealt with Mr Blanche when he complained days afterwards of feeling unwell.
All the defendants have denied negligence and are pleading contributory negligence. The board has pleaded it was never responsible for administration of the polio vaccine.
The doctors plead Dr Fergus McKeagney did give a warning or direction to Mrs Ann Blanche when Isabel was vaccinated. Mr Jack Fitzgerald, for the doctors, said Dr Fergus McKeagney would say he routinely warned parents whose children were being vaccinated that the polio vaccine was a live vaccine, that care had to be taken with the children's nappies for six weeks after vaccination and that they should be double-bagged.
He also warned about not sharing the child's soothers or drinking utensils for six weeks. Dr Fergus McKeagney would also say he would not ask whether any of the child's contacts had been themselves immunised.
Outlining the case to Mr Justice O'Neill, counsel said the polio vaccine was given over three doses. It was most probably the second dose that led directly to Mr Blanche contracting polio.
Mr O'Donnell said the oral polio vaccine (OPV), which is used here, contained a weakened live strain of polio and provided immunity to the disease. It was a well-known consequence of using OPV that close contacts of the immunised person who were not themselves immunised could develop polio.
Mr O'Donnell said the case against the board and Dr Fergus McKeagney was that they failed to warn Mr Blanche of the risks of contracting polio from an inoculated child and to advise him to be inoculated at the same time as his daughter.
The case against Dr Charles McKeagney was more limited and alleged that he failed to recognise Mr Blanche had polio when he saw him on March 12th, 1994. The case continues today.
