Bradley Woodward v. HHS - Influenza, Guillain-Barre syndrome (2025)

On December 5, 2023, Bradley Woodward, then 55, filed a petition alleging that an influenza vaccine administered on November 25, 2022 caused Guillain-Barre syndrome. Less than two weeks later, Mr.

Woodward was treated for a sore throat. He soon developed numbness and tingling in his hands and forearms, mild blurry vision, altered speech, and progressive weakness.

He went to urgent care and emergency departments several times between December 16 and December 19, 2022. At Owatonna Hospital he had numbness, decreased mobility, decreased sensation to the chest and abdomen, and absent reflexes.

After ambulance transport and admission, neurologist Kenneth Hoj suspected GBS; a lumbar puncture showed elevated protein, and Mr. Woodward received a four-day course of IVIG during a five-day hospitalization.

Physical medicine noted that he had been independent and working full time in auto sales and that he had strong family support at home. Respondent conceded entitlement on August 27, 2024, agreeing that the flu vaccine caused Table GBS and that no alternative cause better explained the condition.

Damages remained contested. Mr.

Woodward sought $125,000.00 for pain and suffering; respondent proposed $77,500.00, emphasizing his relatively short hospitalization, discharge home rather than to inpatient rehabilitation, two outpatient physical therapy sessions, three neurology follow-ups, and good recovery. Chief Special Master Brian H.

Corcoran found the illness serious and frightening even though comparatively mild, and awarded $125,000.00 for pain and suffering, $6,368.00 in lost wages, and $318.23 in unreimbursed expenses, for a total of $131,686.23 on December 17, 2025.