Rare Win for a Client With Ulcerative Colitis Following Tetanus, Diphtheria and Pertussis and Hepatitis A Vaccines

 Posted on January 02, 2026 in Vaccine Information

Kraus Law Group recently secured a win for a client who developed ulcerative colitis following vaccinations.

Our client, a healthy and active 35-year-old man, received the Tdap and Hepatitis A vaccines in anticipation of international travel. Within a week, he began to experience the initial gastrointestinal symptoms that were ultimately diagnosed as ulcerative colitis. Our client has experienced a very difficult disease course, including suffering a stroke related to his condition, and multiple hospitalizations for stabilizing care. Given the disruptive nature of his illness, his career and quality of life have both been profoundly affected.

To handle this complex matter, our firm retained medical experts in gastroenterology and immunology to explain to the presiding Special Master how and why the vaccines our client received triggered his condition. After years of litigation, the Court held a trial, or hearing, on the issue of causation to hear testimony from our client and our medical experts as well as from the government’s expert witnesses, both of whom disputed that the vaccines caused or contributed to our client’s illness.

In November 2025, the Court issued a decision finding that the vaccinations our client received did trigger his ulcerative colitis (Case No. 19-477). This means that our client will be awarded compensation for his injury, though his final damages are not yet decided.

This is an exciting and hard-fought win for our client and our firm. Cases involving gastrointestinal illnesses, particularly, ulcerative colitis have been extremely challenging to prove in the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP). This case is the first one involving this specific injury and theory of causation to be successful.

Our firm practices only vaccine injury law and our deep knowledge of the law and science involved in vaccine claims helped us to develop this case and reach a winning conclusion.  

While this is a representative case, and not a guarantee of success, it emphasizes that these matters involve careful preparation, management and ardent advocacy. At Kraus Law Group, our advocacy skills have been developed over two decades in the VICP. Unlike many firms, this is all we do.