Breana Porcello v. HHS - Influenza, shoulder injury related to vaccine administration (SIRVA) (2020)

Breana Porcello, a 20-year-old college student and field hockey player, filed a petition for compensation under the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program on September 14, 2017. She alleged that she suffered a shoulder injury related to vaccine administration (SIRVA) as a result of an influenza vaccine she received on November 22, 2016.

Ms. Porcello claimed that the pain began immediately after the vaccination.

However, contemporaneous medical records did not document her shoulder pain until March 17, 2017, over three months later. She presented to various medical providers, including an athletic trainer, her primary care physician Dr.

Laura L. Carman, and orthopedist Dr.

Marie Walcott. Medical records from these visits noted pain and weakness in her left shoulder, and an MRI revealed bone marrow edema.

Dr. Walcott consulted with a colleague who suggested SIRVA, and Dr.

Walcott reviewed literature and found similar MRI findings. Ms.

Porcello's expert, Dr. Jeffrey A.

Dlabach, opined that she sustained a SIRVA due to the vaccination, citing the MRI findings of edema. The respondent argued that Ms.

Porcello failed to establish a proximate temporal relationship between the vaccination and her injury, noting the significant delay in seeking treatment and the lack of contemporaneous documentation. Chief Special Master Brian H.

Corcoran issued a decision on June 22, 2020, finding that Ms. Porcello failed to establish the third prong of the Althen test for off-Table claims: a proximate temporal relationship between vaccination and injury.

The Special Master noted that the evidence of onset was vague and contradicted by some records, and the medical records did not confirm onset within a medically acceptable timeframe, particularly given the nearly four-month gap between vaccination and the first documented complaint. The Special Master denied Ms.

Porcello's motion for summary judgment and dismissed the petition for insufficient proof. Ms.

Porcello moved for review of this decision. On November 25, 2020, Senior Judge Loren A.

Smith of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims affirmed the Special Master's decision, finding it was not arbitrary, capricious, or contrary to law.

The court agreed that the evidence of onset was vague and that Ms. Porcello had not established a medically acceptable timeframe for a non-Table SIRVA injury.

The petition was dismissed.