Mom suffers ‘disabling pain’ after COVID shot trial, suit says. She’s suing AstraZeneca
A Utah mother is suing AstraZeneca after she participated in a clinical trial for the company’s COVID-19 vaccine in the fall of 2020.
Brianne Dressen “now lives every day with constant disabling pain” after she received one dose of the shot developed by the drugmaker during a clinical trial in Salt Lake County, according to her lawsuit filed May 13 in federal court.
Dressen enrolled herself in the research when she was 39 and signed a consent form, which detailed potential vaccine side effects and the possibility of serious adverse reaction, the lawsuit, first reported by Bloomberg Law, says.
The form she signed also promised “compensation” for the costs of any potential injuries related to the research, according to the complaint.
“With these reassurances should something go wrong, Bri signed the form, rolled up her sleeve, and let the drug company inject the experimental product into her arm,” the complaint says.
Within an hour of Dressen’s injection, she felt a “tingling and prickling” sensation, according to the complaint, which says she later learned she was experiencing paresthesia.
The sensation persisted and extended to her left arm, the complaint says. Then more debilitating symptoms appeared — including blurred vision, headache, tinnitus, nausea and more — before the tingling and prickling sensations reached her legs.
“Fast forward three years and Bri is still disabled. While some of the acute symptomology has improved, she remains a shadow of her former self,” the complaint says.
Everyday, Dressen, who hasn’t been able to continue working as a preschool teacher, says in the lawsuit that she experiences “sharp tingling sensations that move from my heart through my whole body.”
COVID-19 vaccines are considered safe and effective by the FDA. Adverse reactions to the shots are possible, but rare, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The same goes for other routinely recommended vaccines, the CDC says.
Dressen is not suing AstraZeneca over her injury. She’s suing the company for a breach of contract. The lawsuit also names Velocity Clinical Research as a defendant.
She accuses AstraZeneca of refusing to cover costs of her ongoing medical care that stems from her vaccine injury, as outlined in the contract.
AstraZeneca, according to the lawsuit, offered Dressen $1,243.30 and is leaving her with a heavy financial burden that is costing hundreds of thousands of dollars, the complaint says.
In an emailed statement, an AstraZeneca spokesperson told McClatchy News that “We cannot comment on ongoing litigation.”
“Patient safety is our highest priority. From the body of evidence in clinical trials and real-world data, the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine has continuously been shown to have an acceptable safety profile and regulators around the world consistently state that the benefits of vaccination outweigh the risks of extremely rare potential side effects,” the spokesperson said.
Velocity has not responded to a request for comment from McClatchy News.
AstraZeneca is removing its COVID-19 vaccine from the market due to less demand for it, Reuters reported on May 8.
‘Post vaccine neuropathy’ diagnosis
In June 2021, Dressen was seen by a team of neurologists with the National Institutes of Health at the agency’s campus in Bethesda, Maryland, the complaint says.
Seven months after she participated in AstraZeneca’s clinical trial, the doctors diagnosed her with “post vaccine neuropathy,” according to the complaint.
A small, observational study led by a NIH team, including some researchers based in Bethesda, that was published as a preprint in May 2022 found “circumstantial evidence” suggesting “a variety of neuropathic symptoms may manifest” after a COVID-19 vaccine.
The study hasn’t been peer-reviewed and involved 23 self-referred patients. The researchers concluded that potential neuropathic symptoms are “very rare.”
Dressen’s lawsuit says that her neuropathy from AstraZeneca’s vaccine led to “a debilitating disordering of her autonomic nervous system” and that she experiences “a myriad array of constant, abnormal, and painful sensations, including the feeling of an electric shock coursing in her body.”
Expensive costs of care
According to the complaint, one of the medications Dressen takes cost $119,000 a year — a price negotiated by her insurance company.
Without insurance, the medication, which wasn’t specified, costs $432,000 a year, the lawsuit says.
When AstraZeneca offered her a little over $1,200 as compensation, Dressen was receiving biweekly IV infusions that cost $3,500 each session, according to the complaint.
“I was nothing more than a number to AstraZeneca. I was not a mom with kids who desperately needed their momma, or a teacher with dozens of little kids depending on me to make the unknowns of this new Covid world less scary. I was not a wife to a man who wanted nothing more than for the love of his life to be ok. To them I was nothing,” Dressen said in the complaint.
Dressen is the founder of React19, a nonprofit that supports people who were injured from the COVID-19 vaccine, according to her social media accounts.
New York Times journalist Apoorva Mandavilli published an article May 3 involving interviews of dozens of people, including health experts, who discussed serious reactions they said they experienced after the COVID-19 vaccine.
The report included comments from former FDA Commissioner Dr. Janet Woodcock, who retired in February and told the Times: “I believe their suffering should be acknowledged, that they have real problems, and they should be taken seriously.”
As with any medicine, the CDC says vaccines can have side effects. A more rare, serious reaction could be caused by the vaccine, or it could be “coincidental” and related to another health condition, according to the agency.
Attorney Aaron Siri, who is representing Dressen in the litigation, said in a statement on X, formerly known as Twitter, that she is “seeking to hold AstraZeneca accountable for refusing to honor its promises.”
Dressen’s lawsuit seeks economic damages, including for medical and childcare costs, and emotional damages. She’s demanding a jury trial.
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