Man Awarded $22.5 Million From Polio Vaccine Maker

A New York City man who contracted polio 30 years ago while changing his daughter’s diaper after the girl had been given an oral vaccine for the disease has been awarded $22.5 million from the maker of the vaccine.

Dominick Tenuto was stricken with polio after coming into contact with his daughter’s stool while changing the diaper. The infant had been given the Orimune vaccine, made by Lederle Laboratories, which contained a live virus.

Jurors in Tenuto’s lawsuit against the drug maker found Lederle Laboratories was “100 percent liable” for his injuries and that the company failed to warn physicians about the potential risks of the vaccine.

Tenuto, a former Wall Street securities worker, became ill in 1979 and lost his job after he was confined to a wheelchair. He sued two years after his injury but the case took decades to reach a jury trial.

Lederle Laboratories plans to appeal the verdict, believed to be the largest financial award ever issued on Staten Island.

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