Patricia Feight v. HHS - Pneumococcal, transverse myelitis (2019)

Patricia Feight filed a petition alleging that a pneumococcal (Prevnar 13) vaccine she received on June 13, 2016, caused her transverse myelitis (TM). She submitted her medical records and an affidavit but did not provide an expert report to support her claim.

The respondent, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, recommended against entitlement, noting the absence of reliable medical evidence. Feight subsequently filed a motion to dismiss her own petition, stating that an investigation demonstrated she would be unable to prove entitlement to compensation.

The court found that Feight failed to make a prima facie case of causation in fact, as her medical records did not support her allegations, her treating doctors did not attribute her TM to the vaccine, and she had not filed a medical expert opinion despite an extensive search. The court granted Feight's motion and dismissed the petition for failure to establish a prima facie case.