NIEMIERA BY NIEMIERA v. Schnieder

The opinion of the Court was delivered by

O’HERN, J.

Gregory Niemiera, II is a seven-year-old child who suffered at age two months a disabling convulsive episode that left him brain damaged. Through his parents he alleges that the injuries resulted from an adverse reaction to a childhood vaccine. The central issue in his appeal is whether the “learned-intermediary” doctrine relieves the manufacturer of a childhood vaccine of the duty to warn patients directly of the vaccine’s dangerous side effects. The vaccine here is DPT. Its tri-fold components protect against diphtheria, pertussis (whooping…