Diana Songero v. HHS - Influenza, transverse myelitis (2025)

On February 28, 2018, Diana Songero filed a petition alleging that an influenza vaccination administered on September 24, 2016 caused transverse myelitis. She was 68 years old at vaccination.

Before the acute event, Ms. Songero had several medical issues, including asthma, a history of melanoma resection, prior left kidney removal, and other chronic conditions, but the record did not show neurologic symptoms like those that followed.

On November 26, 2016, while folding laundry, she suddenly felt prickly numbness and weakness spreading through her shoulders, arms, and hands. She feared a stroke or heart attack because she could not use her hands normally.

Hospital evaluation showed bilateral upper-extremity weakness and sensory changes. Brain imaging was not explanatory, but cervical-spine MRI showed abnormal cord signal from about C4 through C7, and physicians treated the presentation as acute transverse myelitis after considering malignancy, compression, infection, and demyelinating disease.

Ms. Songero received high-dose steroids and improved enough to return to work, but she continued to struggle with fine motor tasks.

She described slower typing with more mistakes, dropping papers, difficulty turning a key or gear shift early in recovery, and limits safely carrying or caring for her grandchildren. Follow-up MRIs continued to show residual cervical cord changes.

A pulmonologist later advised her not to receive future flu shots. Petitioner's expert, neurologist Dr.

Carlo Tornatore, testified that the flu vaccine can trigger transverse myelitis through immune-mediated mechanisms such as molecular mimicry, epitope spreading, bystander activation, polyclonal activation, and a fertile-field response. Respondent's expert, neurologist Dr.

Peter Donofrio, disputed causation, emphasized the 63-day interval, and proposed an undiagnosed urinary tract infection as a more likely cause. Special Master Mindy Michaels Roth granted entitlement on October 3, 2025.

She found the vaccine theory reliable, accepted the 63-day interval as medically acceptable for a rare immune-mediated CNS demyelinating injury, and rejected UTI as a demonstrated alternative cause. Damages remain pending.

Ms. Songero was represented by Ronald Craig Homer of Conway Homer, P.C.