Intussusception Claims

Generally, to receive compensation from the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP), you or a loved one must have received a rotavirus vaccine, resulting in injury from intussusception after 24 hours or more. To receive compensation based on the Vaccine Table, the intussusception must have occurred no longer than 21 days after a first or second inoculation with rotavirus vaccine.

HHS explains why intussusception after a third injection is not included in the Vaccine Injury Table:

The definition for presumption of vaccine causation only applies to the first and second dose of vaccine, and excludes intussusception occurring with or after the third dose. The third dose of rotavirus vaccines lacks sufficient evidence showing risk.

The Vaccine Injury Table defines intussusception as:

the invagination of a segment of intestine into the next segment of intestine, resulting in bowel obstruction, diminished arterial blood supply, and blockage of the venous blood flow. This is characterized by a sudden onset of abdominal pain that may be manifested by anguished crying, irritability, vomiting, abdominal swelling, and/or passing of stools mixed with blood and mucus.

What does invagination mean?

When the Vaccine Table describes intussusception as an “invagination” of the intestine, it means that the bowel folds in on itself. From the Latin “vagus,” meaning wandering or migrating, an invagination of the intestine involves a segment of the intestine migrating out of place by pushing itself inside another segment of bowel.

Stanford Children’s Hospital describes invagination as:

a portion of the intestine folds like a telescope, with one segment slipping inside another segment. It can occur in the colon, the small bowel, or between the small bowel and colon.

 

Just like the telescope segments fold into themselves, in intussusception, a bowel segment folds into another segmentIntussusception is the most common cause of bowel obstruction in young children (ages 3 months to 3 years), according to Stanford Children’s Hospital (SCH). A child with intussusception may start to cry loudly, pull their knees to their chest, or become very irritable and fussy. A red mucus or jelly-like stool is often seen with intussusception, according to SCH.

Children with intussusception may be inconsolable and in extreme pain, or they may experience bouts of abdominal pain only intermittently.

Vaccine-induced intussusception occurs most commonly within 4-5 days of vaccination, according to HHS.

Your VICP attorney will need childhood medial records, vaccination records, family history of bowel illnesses, the paperwork with the official diagnosis of intussusception from a doctor, and the results of any tests that were run to confirm intussusception (such as an abdominal xray, ultrasound, upper GI series, or barium enema). Your vaccine-injury attorney may also need to discuss with you all the negative health effects, medical costs, and emotional impacts that resulted from the intussusception.

An intussusception claim for compensation from the federal VICP program might fail because the intussusception did not occur within the 1-21 day window of the rotavirus vaccine. It might not succeed if the child had a congenital bowel abnormality that could explain the intussusception, or if the child had a genetic condition that may also explain the intussusception (such as cystic fibrosis, celiac disease, or Kawasaki disease).

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