Shari Gress v. HHS - Influenza, shoulder injury related to vaccine administration (SIRVA) (2025)

Shari Gress filed her petition on October 22, 2020, alleging that an influenza vaccination administered in her left deltoid on November 10, 2017 caused a shoulder injury related to vaccine administration. She later amended the petition to focus on SIRVA.

Gress was represented by Brynna Gang of Kraus Law Group, LLC, after earlier representation by Peter M. Young.

The public record tells a substantial clinical story. Ten days after the flu shot, Gress saw her primary care physician, Dr.

David Erickson, reporting sinus pain and left arm pain possibly from the flu shot. The record from that visit described pain in the left upper inner arm immediately after injection, followed by throbbing upper-arm pain that did not improve with ibuprofen.

By December 7, 2017, she reported pain shooting down her arm into her hand, was assessed as having a possible nerve injury from the vaccination, and was prescribed gabapentin. She later worried that her symptoms might reflect Parsonage-Turner syndrome rather than bursitis or a partial rotator cuff tear.

Orthopedist Dr. David Bernhardt saw Gress on December 27, 2017.

He recorded her concern that the flu shot had been given unusually high in the shoulder and that, two or three days later, increasing pain and loss of range of motion developed. He initially thought the severe pain and weakness most likely reflected brachial neuritis consistent with Parsonage-Turner syndrome and recommended EMG testing, which Gress declined at that time because of cost.

Her symptoms continued through early 2018. Gabapentin and duloxetine caused fogginess or were not helpful, and she received steroid injections beginning in February 2018, followed by physical therapy.

She continued to report popping, crunching, pain with overhead reaching, weakness, and difficulty lifting more than her arm. Gress eventually underwent EMG testing in August 2018, which was normal.

Orthopedic surgeon Dr. Andrea Spiker performed left shoulder arthroscopy on August 28, 2018 and found a complete rotator cuff tear.

Gress continued to have pain and weakness after surgery, tried physical therapy and repeated lidocaine injections, and had additional imaging that showed postoperative changes, partial-thickness fraying of the infraspinatus tendon, and later atrophy. She had a second shoulder arthroscopy with anterior and posterior capsular plication on January 3, 2020, then initially improved, with no pain reported at an April 2020 virtual visit and nearly full range of motion by June 2020.

After a 19-month gap, she again reported worsening shoulder pain and instability in February 2022. A third arthroscopy followed on March 28, 2022, and after continued pain, clicking, scapular winging, muscle atrophy, cartilage loss, osteoarthritis, and subluxation, she underwent a left reverse total shoulder arthroplasty on September 20, 2022.

Respondent opposed entitlement, arguing that Gress had not shown her pain and reduced range of motion were limited to the vaccinated shoulder because some records described radiating pain into the forearm, hand, thumb, or fingers, and also arguing that causation-in-fact was not established for an off-Table claim. Chief Special Master Brian H.

Corcoran found the Table SIRVA requirements satisfied. He found no prior left shoulder condition, credited the records and affidavits showing pain began the day of vaccination, and concluded that the totality of the evidence showed the initial, primary, and consistent source of pain was the left shoulder even though some severe pain radiated down the arm.

He also found no alternative condition explaining the symptoms: Parsonage-Turner syndrome had been suspected, but EMG testing and the later shoulder findings ruled out a neurological explanation. On December 3, 2024, Chief Special Master Corcoran found Gress entitled to compensation.

On June 18, 2025, he awarded $247,758.43 based on respondent's proffer: $215,000.00 for past pain and suffering, $28,572.25 for future pain and suffering after reducing an initial $35,000.00 figure to net present value, and $4,186.18 for past unreimbursed expenses. A later March 26, 2026 decision awarded attorney's fees and costs totaling $54,956.82, split between current counsel Brynna Gang and former counsel Peter M.

Young; that fee award was separate from injury compensation.