Heather Adams v. HHS - Influenza, Guillain-Barré Syndrome (2024)

Heather Adams filed a petition alleging Guillain-Barré Syndrome (GBS) after receiving an influenza vaccine on November 8, 2016. She claimed her GBS was a Table injury.

Ms. Adams' medical history included prior fatigue and headaches, and she received a flu vaccine on November 8, 2016.

Within days, she experienced progressive weakness, numbness, and tingling, leading to hospitalization. Her treating physicians, including Dr.

Edgar, diagnosed her with GBS, noting rapid progression and initiating IVIG treatment. While some initial symptoms were atypical, her condition ultimately met the criteria for GBS, including bilateral limb weakness, areflexia, and a monophasic illness pattern with stabilization after treatment.

Although one physician, Dr. Lajara-Nanson, questioned the GBS diagnosis 18 months later, attributing her symptoms to other conditions like carpal tunnel syndrome and meralgia paresthetica, her treating physicians and petitioner's expert, Dr.

Hoke, maintained the GBS diagnosis. Respondent's expert, Dr.

Chaudhry, argued for alternative diagnoses like CIDP or TM, citing symptom fluctuations and lack of specific testing. However, the court found that the treating physicians' diagnoses were entitled to great weight and that the evidence supported a GBS diagnosis.

The court determined that Ms. Adams' GBS onset occurred within the Table's 3-42 day window and that she met the Qualification and Aids to Interpretation (QAI) criteria for a Table GBS claim.

The court found that respondent failed to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that an infection, rather than the vaccine, caused her GBS. Therefore, entitlement to compensation was granted, and the case was to proceed to damages.