William Bauer v. HHS - Influenza, Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS), hyperkalemia/acute kidney injury theories, and death (2024)

On September 21, 2018, Donna Bauer filed a petition as surviving spouse and heir-at-law of William Bauer. She alleged that the influenza vaccine Mr.

Bauer received on October 12, 2017 caused Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS) and his death. In an amended petition, she also alleged that the vaccine caused or significantly aggravated other conditions that led to his fatal decline.

Mr. Bauer had significant pre-vaccination medical issues, including chronic kidney disease, diabetes, hypertension, dyslipidemia, metabolic syndrome, and coronary artery disease.

The record showed that he received the flu vaccine on October 12, 2017. Five days later, on October 17, he saw his primary care physician, Dr.

Christopher Jarvis, reporting difficulty walking, leg pain, tingling in his upper arms and fingers, trouble going up stairs, and episodes in which his legs gave out. Family witnesses described him as active before the vaccination and recalled a change during a zoo trip on October 13, when his legs did not feel right.

On October 20, 2017, Mr. Bauer went to the emergency department with severe weakness and respiratory compromise.

His records reflected acute renal failure, severe hyperkalemia, and suspected GBS with respiratory compromise. Later that day he developed wide-complex bradycardia without a pulse.

Resuscitation was unsuccessful, and he died while awaiting helicopter transfer. No autopsy was performed.

The death certificate listed cardiopulmonary arrest as the immediate cause of death, with hyperkalemia, coronary artery disease, and possible GBS as underlying causes. Petitioner's theory came principally through Dr.

Jarvis, who signed the death certificate and opined that Mr. Bauer suffered GBS in association with the flu vaccine and would not have died in October 2017 but for the vaccination.

Respondent contested both the GBS diagnosis and causation. Respondent's experts, including neurologist Dr.

Brian Callaghan and nephrologist Dr. Kevin O.

Griffiths, focused on Mr. Bauer's chronic kidney disease, potassium-elevating medications, acute kidney injury, and severe hyperkalemia as the more persuasive explanation for weakness, paralysis-like symptoms, cardiac instability, and death.

Special Master Herbrina Sanders denied entitlement on September 23, 2024. She found that petitioner had not established Table GBS because Mr.

Bauer's symptoms began no later than October 13, 2017, only one day after vaccination and outside the Table's three-to-forty-two-day onset window. She also found that severe hyperkalemia was an exclusionary factor for the GBS theory and that petitioner had not proven causation-in-fact or significant aggravation.

A later April 1, 2026 decision awarded attorneys' fees and costs, but no vaccine-injury compensation was awarded.