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

On December 30, 2020, Margaret Eddings, then 74, filed a petition alleging that an influenza vaccine administered on October 23, 2019 caused shoulder injury related to vaccine administration. Ms.

Eddings had substantial pre-vaccination medical history, including rheumatoid arthritis, Sjogren's syndrome, osteoarthritis, and significant hip problems that led to right hip replacement. Six days after vaccination she was seen for other issues, and fifteen days after vaccination she reported left arm pain.

She later explained that the flu shot had been placed high, caused immediate unusual pain, and remained painful and sore afterward. In April 2020, more than five months after vaccination, she sought formal shoulder treatment, reporting chronic worsening left shoulder pain since the flu shot.

Records documented restricted movement, bursitis, impingement, steroid injections, physical therapy, and MRI findings including a labral tear and bursitis. Respondent opposed entitlement, arguing that Ms.

Eddings had not shown onset within forty-eight hours. Chief Special Master Brian H.

Corcoran credited her declaration and the contemporaneous left-arm-pain notation, found that the delay in formal treatment was explained in part by hip surgery and early COVID-era access problems, and held that the Table SIRVA criteria were met. On July 16, 2025, after a stipulated damages proffer, he awarded $36,000.00 for pain and suffering as a lump sum.