Buddy Kindle v. HHS - Influenza, Guillain-Barré syndrome (2025)

Buddy Kindle, a 72-year-old man, received an influenza vaccine on November 1, 2017. He later developed Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS).

Mr. Kindle filed a petition alleging that his GBS was either a Table injury or caused-in-fact by the vaccine.

The respondent argued that the onset of Mr. Kindle's GBS symptoms occurred outside the Table's 3-42 day window and that a preceding upper respiratory infection was a more likely cause.

The Special Master reviewed the evidence, including Mr. Kindle's own statement and that of his friend, as well as contemporaneous medical records.

The Special Master found that Mr. Kindle's subjective statements about feeling unwell were too vague to establish an early onset.

Medical records indicated that his GBS symptoms first clearly manifested around January 5, 2018, approximately 65 days after vaccination, which is outside the Table's timeframe. The Special Master also considered symptoms like eye pain, dizziness, and back pain that occurred within the Table timeframe but found them to be either unrelated to GBS or pre-existing conditions, not indicative of GBS onset.

Consequently, the claim was dismissed because Mr. Kindle failed to establish a Table injury.

Furthermore, the Special Master determined that the nine-week delay between vaccination and symptom onset was too remote to establish causation-in-fact under the Althen standard, as it exceeded the generally accepted eight-week timeframe for inferring vaccine causation for off-Table claims. This decision was later reviewed by the Court of Federal Claims, which upheld the Special Master's findings, concluding that the onset determination and the dismissal of both the Table and off-Table claims were not arbitrary or capricious.