Amanda Wiles v. HHS - Tdap, seizure disorder; focal epilepsy (2025)

On April 7, 2022, Amanda Wiles filed a petition alleging that tetanus-diphtheria-acellular pertussis (Tdap) and influenza vaccinations administered on October 3, 2019 caused or significantly aggravated a seizure disorder. She was 24 years old at vaccination, and the claim proceeded as an off-Table significant-aggravation case before Chief Special Master Brian H.

Corcoran. A week and a half after the vaccines, on October 12, 2019, Ms.

Wiles went to the emergency room reporting confusion and episodes during the previous week when she could not remember what she had done. At follow-up with neurologist Dr.

Rosenbaum, she described symptoms within hours of vaccination, including confusion and a sensation of deja vu. An EEG showed epileptiform activity, and Dr.

Rosenbaum prescribed anti-seizure medication and later assessed localization-related epilepsy. The record also showed that Ms.

Wiles had experienced intermittent deja vu episodes in the year before vaccination, and both sides ultimately accepted that her focal epilepsy likely predated the shots. Her later records reflected worsening epilepsy, including medically refractory or intractable localization-related epilepsy.

Petitioner offered two experts. Dr.

M. Eric Gershwin, an immunologist and rheumatologist, proposed that vaccine-induced cytokines could affect the blood-brain barrier.

Dr. Justin A.

Willer, a clinical neurologist, argued that the concurrent Tdap and flu vaccines could aggravate a preexisting seizure disorder by increasing CNS inflammation and seizure activity. Respondent's experts disagreed.

Dr. Elaine Wirrell, a pediatric neurologist and epileptologist, accepted that Ms.

Wiles likely had epilepsy before vaccination but found no reliable evidence that these vaccines cause worsening of focal non-autoimmune epilepsy in an adult. Dr.

You-Wen He, an immunologist, rejected the blood-brain-barrier and molecular-mimicry components as unsupported. Chief Special Master Corcoran found that Ms.

Wiles likely had preexisting focal epilepsy and that her overall condition worsened after vaccination, satisfying the first three Loving prongs. But the final three prongs, corresponding to Althen, were not met.

The decision emphasized the lack of proof of autoimmune epilepsy, the absence of fever or a vaccine reaction comparable to pediatric febrile-seizure literature, weak support for vaccine-induced cytokine or BBB injury, and epidemiologic evidence against vaccine-associated afebrile seizures or worsening seizure disorder. Entitlement was denied on December 9, 2025, and no injury-compensation award was made.