Prentissa Rodrigue v. HHS - Influenza, chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuritis (CIDP) (2020)
Case summary [AI summaries can sometimes make mistakes]
Prentissa Rodrigue alleged that the influenza vaccine she received on November 1, 2016, caused her to develop chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuritis (CIDP). She claimed to have started experiencing numbness and tingling within a couple of weeks of the vaccination.
The Secretary of Health and Human Services disputed these claims. Ms.
Rodrigue's primary medical support for causation came from her neurologist, Dr. Trahant, who initially noted symptoms within a few weeks of vaccination but later revised his opinion based on affidavits from Ms.
Rodrigue and her family. However, the court found that Dr.
Trahant's revised opinion relied on uncredited assertions and conflicted with the established medical records. A hearing determined that Ms.
Rodrigue's neurologic decline began on January 30, 2017, which was significantly later than her alleged onset and contradicted Dr. Trahant's opinion.
The court also found Dr. Trahant's records to contain inaccuracies.
Because Ms. Rodrigue's sole expert support was based on assertions that conflicted with the court's findings of fact and lacked corroboration from medical records, she failed to meet her burden of proving causation by a preponderance of the evidence.
Consequently, her petition for compensation was denied.