Carson v. Secretary of Health & Human Services

The court today holds that the statute of limitations starts to run before the fact or even the likelihood of vaccine-related injury is recognizable by medical professionals. Thus the court holds that behavior that the medical community did not associate with a vaccine-related injury and “may even be normal” can qualify as a “first symptom” of vaccine-related injury for purposes of commencement of the three-year limitations period of the Vaccine Act. The result is that in the case of Kit Carson the limitations period ended less than a year after the evolving combination of symptoms was…