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THE HAZELHURST CASE: AUTISM OMNIBUS PROCEEDING TEST CASE 2

By Kent Heckenlively, Esq. and Legal Editor

Mom worked as a representative for a pharmaceutical company for more than ten years. Dad is an attorney. Grandpa was a gastro-enterologist, who when his grandson Yates began to exhibit signs of digestive problems was able to get him seen by one of the top gastro-enterologists in the country, Dr. Tim Buie of Harvard University.

These are the people who, according to lead government attorney Vincent Matanoski, were taken in by Dr. Andrew Wakefield’s malevolent scientific fraud in which he intended to panic the world in order to create a market for the measles-only virus in which he had a patent.

Which group made a better argument?

As far as presenting a compelling account of their child’s, the Hazlehursts did an outstanding job. Over the years of their son’s affliction, Rolf was relentless in documenting his condition. In a story related to me by Angela Hazlehurst, she said that one night when Yates was up in the middle of the night screaming, Rolf was calmly video-taping. When she asked her husband why he was filming such a horrible scene he relied, “Because someday we’ll need it.”

The evidence of the severity of Yates’ autism, as well as the timing of the onset of symptoms was overwhelming. The testimony of other family members who lived no more than five minutes away on this point was also immensely helpful.

In my article on the testimony of Dr. Jean-Ronel Corbier I referred to him as “Young Dr. Wonderful.” Apparently, he also had a similar impression on the court. Dr. Corbier was initially reluctant to testify as he’d recently moved his practice and was busy settling in. His report, however, made the court extremely interested in hearing from him, and as a result the entire four-day proceeding was moved to Charlotte, North Carolina to have the benefit of his testimony. According to Rolf Hazlehurst who was in the courtroom, he’d always known Dr. Corbier was smart, but to hear him testify for four hours, with everybody in the court hanging on his every word was remarkable.

In contrast, I don’t think Dr. Rust made as favorable impression for the government. He didn’t think that there could be any possible clinical significance if a child developed an acute encephalopathy nine days after an MMR shot, which was later followed by regressive autism.

[FULL ARTICLE AT AGEOFAUTISM.COM]

Filed under: Vaccine Court Omnibus Autism Proceeding, Yates Hazlehurst Foundation