Sandy Ginsberg v. HHS - Influenza, left shoulder injury related to vaccine administration / off-Table shoulder injury (2024)

On February 8, 2019, Sandy Ginsberg filed a petition alleging that an influenza vaccine administered in her left deltoid on January 9, 2017 caused a shoulder injury. She was 67 years old at vaccination and had no pre-vaccination history of left-shoulder or cervical symptoms.

Ms. Ginsberg reported severe left arm and shoulder pain beginning within 48 hours.

On January 19, 2017, her primary-care provider recorded numbness and pain after the flu shot, with concern for neuropathy, radiculopathy, muscle spasm, and cervical strain. Physical therapy noted excruciating throbbing pain radiating from the arm toward the neck and hand, with difficulty dressing, doing her hair, and shelving books.

Neurologist Dr. Singh later documented mild carpal tunnel syndrome and mild C6 cervical radiculopathy on EMG, and a cervical MRI showed degenerative changes.

A May 2017 shoulder MRI showed full-thickness rotator cuff tears, biceps tenosynovitis, effusion, and AC arthrosis; a later MRI showed tendinosis, partial tearing, and bursitis. Petitioner's expert, Dr.

Naveed Natanzi, opined that the vaccine caused bursitis and made underlying rotator cuff pathology symptomatic. Respondent's experts, orthopedist Dr.

Paul Cagle and neurologist Dr. Brian Callaghan, emphasized cervical radiculopathy, degenerative rotator cuff tearing, and age-related shoulder disease.

Special Master Moran denied the on-Table SIRVA claim because cervical radiculopathy was an exclusionary condition, but he found that Ms. Ginsberg proved an off-Table shoulder injury caused by the flu vaccine.

He awarded $40,000.00 for past pain and suffering and no future pain and suffering, lost earnings, or unreimbursed expenses. A later 2025 Court of Federal Claims opinion concerned attorneys' fees and costs, not additional injury compensation.

Judge Carolyn N. Lerner affirmed most fee reductions but remanded the expert hourly-rate calculation.