Ignacio Montes v. HHS - Influenza, Guillain-Barre syndrome (2025)

On February 27, 2020, Ignacio Montes filed a petition alleging that an influenza vaccination on March 1, 2017, caused Guillain-Barre syndrome. He was 54 years old.

The medical record showed that Mr. Montes had a history of refusing some vaccines.

Kaiser records from March 2017 documented discussion and later ordering of flu and Tdap vaccines, but the orders were discontinued and the contemporaneous records did not clearly show that a flu vaccine was administered. Mr.

Montes had a PICC line placed in his left upper arm on March 9 for IV penicillin after a lumbar puncture. On March 16 he developed tingling in his hands and feet and back pain, and he was hospitalized from March 17 to March 27 with Guillain-Barre syndrome treated with IVIG.

The early hospitalization records did not identify vaccination as the trigger. Later notes recorded history from Mr.

Montes or his wife that he had received a flu shot about two weeks earlier. A state immunization record printed years later listed a flu vaccination on March 1, 2017, but earlier records did not.

Chief Special Master Corcoran found that the later printout and later patient history were not enough to prove vaccine receipt against the contemporaneous medical record. On September 10, 2025, the petition was dismissed because petitioner did not establish that he received the covered influenza vaccine alleged to have caused his GBS.

No compensation was awarded. Mr.

Montes was represented by William Goldsmith.