I wonder if she’d had a flu vaccine shortly before the GBS. Something like 30% of all GBS sufferers have had a flu shot in the month before symptoms begin.
I was wondering the same thing. I have no idea why a vaccine would provoke such a horrible autoimmune reaction in some people.
While rare and not anywhere near some 30%, GBS can be triggered by a vaccine. It is more common however to occur in people who have been recently sickened with a bacterial (bacterium Campylobacter jejuni is one of the most common risk factors for GBS - likely occur due to eating raw or undercooked poultry, or to eating something that touched it) or viral infection like influenza, other viral respiratory infections. In other words, you are more likely to get GBS from the influenza than from the influenza vaccine.
Anyone who has previously been diagnosed with GBS should not get an influenza vaccination, which makes it more incumbent on others not otherwise recommended not to get it, to get the vaccine as someone who has previously had GBS are susceptible to having a reoccurrence if they come down with the flu.