After Annie received her first round of vaccinations, her leg turned red. A lump grew to the size of an egg where the injections pierced her skin.

Three times when Annie was an infant she stopped breathing. She developed digestive problems, had trouble sitting up and didn't respond to the people around her.

"She responded to her doctor as if he was a piece of furniture," Wyrick said.

Annie was 3 when doctors diagnosed the young Clovis resident as autistic. Now 6 years old, Annie is still a thin 43-pound child who sometimes screams but does not talk.

Wyrick and her doctor said medical evidence shows Annie's autism was caused by mercury-laden vaccines.

At least 40 Californians are suing makers of the vaccines they consider responsible for their children's autism. Theirs is a tough legal case, which just got immensely more difficult.

In a vivid flexing of pharmaceutical industry muscle, the homeland security bill newly signed by President Bush squelches -- or, at the least, bumps off course -- the vaccination lawsuits. This means the end of about 100 individual lawsuits, and another half dozen or so class-action suits, filed nationwide against vaccine makers.

"It makes me very angry," said Genett Reed of Manteca, whose son Adam is autistic. "It makes me sad that he has to suffer, and he does suffer."

When Adam was 2 he stopped talking. He would not eat. He simply rocked and stared into space.

Now his parents are in court.

Wyrick, the Clovis mother, said she plans to sue the drug manufacturers she holds responsible for Annie's autism. "And what I hope comes out of it is for the medical community to become more responsible."

Annie has a weak immune system which should have been considered before she was vaccinated, Wyrick said.

Advised that such a lawsuit could not proceed under the bill signed by Bush, Wyrick audibly gasped.

"I'm really disappointed that he would take that right away from us," Wyrick said.

One-third of California parents of autistic children diagnosed in the mid-1990s blamed vaccines, a University of California at Davis survey issued last month found. The study, completed by the university's Medical Investigation of Neurodevelopmental Disorders Institute, did not pinpoint a cause for the state's stunning rise in autism cases.

But parental questions about vaccines persist, despite official skepticism about any linkage to autism. California's 273% increase in reported autism between 1987 and 1998 is forcing lots of parents and lawmakers alike to dig into causes.

"We're angry that nobody was willing to listen to us," Reed said, adding that her lawsuit was designed "primarily to let people know that this can happen to their child."

Drug companies, in turn, complain that constant litigation threatens their ability to supply the public. Slipped at the last minute into the bill establishing the Department of Homeland Security, the provision indemnifies drug companies not just against future lawsuits but also against those already filed.

"A number of lawsuits that are without merit have been filed," Ed Sagebiel, spokesman for drug manufacturer Eli Lilly, told the San Francisco Chronicle. "That's why this legislation is a good idea. It prevents groundless lawsuits."

A handful of moderate Republicans joined with Democratic lawmakers in vowing an uphill fight next year to restore the vaccination lawsuit option. Republican leaders consented to consider revising the lawsuit provision next year but did not commit themselves to eliminating it.

The defendant companies can now cite the law in asking judges to dismiss the lawsuits in state and federal courts. Texas attorney Andy Waters, who represents Reed and a half dozen other Central Valley parents, said he hopes he still can maneuver to keep at least part of the lawsuits alive.

Parents, however, can still go to the U.S. Court of Federal Claims.

This is the same court already used by parents who claim their children suffered other vaccine injuries. Conceivably, parents can win hundreds of thousands of dollars to help pay for their children's treatment.

Dollar awards in the claims court come from the government and widespread industry fees rather than from individual companies. That is preferred by the pharmaceutical industry, which according to a Center for Responsive Politics analysis has contributed at least $14.5 million to federal candidates since last year.

It also is a specific advantage to drug manufacturer Eli Lilly, whose former senior vice president, Mitch Daniels, is now Bush's budget chief.

In San Joaquin Valley homes, though, these legislative and litigation details seem a bit removed from the day-to-day challenge of raising autistic children.

Genett Reed is the 30-year-old owner of a dog grooming business.

Her husband, Nathan, installs alarms. Adam is their only child. He was thoroughly happy and developing well, Genett said, until he started getting shots designed to protect him from diseases like measles, mumps and rubella.

"After every vaccination, he would withdraw more and more," Reed said. Until, "after his last set of shots, he just withdrew completely."

Research through the Internet and library convinced Reed that her son might have been harmed by Thimerosal. This is a preservative, containing mercury, formerly used in childhood vaccines. Tests of Adam's urine showed mercury present at nearly five times expected levels.

Adam's original doctor was doubtful about linking the vaccines and autism. So are the federal Institute of Medicine scientists who have completed their own review.

"Preliminary data from a few studies have suggested that Thimerosal-containing vaccines could possibly -- very minimally -- affect some measures of normal child development," stated Dr. Marie McCormick, chair of the Institute of Medicine's study panel. "But the data are inconclusive."

McCormick added in her report that the evidence was "inadequate to either accept or reject a causal relationship between exposure to Thimerosal from vaccines" and autism.

This scientific ambiguity will complicate any case filed in claims court.

The court has an established no-fault system for handling vaccine injuries, though it doesn't always work quickly. But autism, unlike shock or encephalitis, is not listed among the conditions presumed to be caused by vaccines. That means parents must still prove the vaccine actually caused the condition.

Adam, meanwhile, has been showing improvement after undergoing some controversial therapy designed to rid his body of toxins. Reed said her son is making eye contact, showing affection and once more using the words more precious than gold: mommy and daddy.

The reporters can be reached

at mdoyle@mcclatchydc.com and (202) 383-0006 or mleedy@fresnobee.com and 441-6208.

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