Age: 51.0
Sex: M
Vaccine: ANTH
Symptoms: Fall, Gait disturbance, Headache, Hypokinesia, Mental impairment
Clinical narrative: Submitted to Docket No. 1980N-0208; 69 FR 78281, December 29, 2004 - Bacterial Vaccines & Toxoids Efficacy Review Proposal. My husband was a chief in the national guard. He held that position for 11 years. In August of 1999, my husband was scheduled to receive the first of a series of anthrax inoculations. Because of a previously scheduled vacation, he was not able to have the required first shot and was then ordered to begin his series in October of the same year with another unit. He received two inoculations in October and a third in April 2000. Although I am not able to recall the exact dates, it was during that spring that my children and I started changes in their father. He began experiencing extremely severe bouts of diarrhea. At times, they were so severe that he couldn't control himself and make it to the bathroom. In 25 years of marriage he never complained of headaches, but suddenly he began having such severe headaches he was incapacitated. Perhaps the most striking symptom his family noticed was his mental changes. He had frequent mood changes and his memory failed him so badly he could not remember people he had known for years, daily routes he drove, conversations with people. Our children and I seriously discussed the possibility of Alzheimer's, although it happened very quickly, not slowly. During this time, he also began experiencing what he believed to be low back pain due to a back problem he had experienced some years ago. He began seeing a chiropractor that helped him in the past, but this time there was no relief. After the first of the year (2001) he began a slight limp and at the end of February he went on exercise and ti was there he had his first fall. After that fall, he fell quite often and had a very noticeable gait due to foot drop. By a holiday weekend, our son graduated from high school and he had to go to the ceremony in a wheelchair. The next week, we had to take him by ambulance to the ER due to breathing difficulties and by mid June he never got out of bed again and had been placed on a ventilator. He was tested for many diseases and all the doctors could conclude was that he had ALS. He has symptoms that are not associated with ALS and there are things that doctors are unable to explain to us because they are not associated with ALS, but in the end it is what they feel it is. He was in the hospital for 8 months while doctors tried to figure out his diagnosis. In January 2002, we brought him home with home nursing care. He is not on a ventilator, feeding tube, totally paralyzed. We have no communication with him except occasionally I am able to get a yes or no answer by watching his eyes to see his iris move ever so slightly. We are assured he understands as he has had EKG's, etc. that are normal. He is now trapped in his body with absolutely no communication with the rest of the world. D/C Summary received from hospital which revealed final dx: ALS, multiple decubiti, multiple episodes of MRSA sepsis & pneumonia, respiratory failure, chronic pain & anxiety.  PEG, trach & vent dependent at home. Received vaccine records from military.