Angela Quinn Cross v. HHS - Influenza, shoulder injury related to vaccine administration (SIRVA) (2023)

Angela Cross filed a petition for compensation under the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program on December 26, 2019, alleging she suffered a shoulder injury related to vaccine administration (SIRVA) after receiving an influenza vaccine on September 12, 2018. The case was assigned to the Special Processing Unit.

After settlement negotiations reached an impasse, the parties proceeded to litigate entitlement. Respondent argued that Petitioner had not established the statutory "severity" requirement of six or more months of injury-related sequelae and that her pain was not limited to the shoulder in which she received the vaccine.

Petitioner argued that her pain, though sometimes radiating, originated in the left shoulder and that the injury persisted for more than six months. The public decision does not describe the specific clinical presentation or diagnostic tests beyond medical records and declarations.

Chief Special Master Brian H. Corcoran issued a Ruling on Entitlement on December 2, 2022, finding that Petitioner's injury was limited to her left shoulder, that the injury and its residual effects lasted for more than six months, and that she met the Table criteria for SIRVA.

The Chief Special Master noted that while there was a six-month gap in treatment, it was partially explained by a steroid injection providing relief, relocation, and self-care. The ruling also addressed the "radiating" pain, concluding that musculoskeletal pain primarily occurring in the shoulder is valid under the Table even if it extends to adjacent parts of the body, as long as the essence of the claim is that the vaccine administered to the shoulder primarily caused pain there.

Petitioner was found to have met all requirements for a Table SIRVA claim. Subsequently, on January 26, 2023, Respondent filed a proffer on the award of compensation, agreeing to an award of $102,500.00 for actual pain and suffering, which Petitioner accepted.

On January 27, 2023, Chief Special Master Corcoran issued a Decision Awarding Damages, awarding Petitioner a lump sum payment of $102,500.00 for her actual pain and suffering.