A fit and healthy dad who says he was left "paralysed by the Covid vaccine" in a rare reaction has won a payout of £120,000 in what is believed to be a UK first.
Anthony Shingler, 58, recently returned home to his family after spending 420 days in hospital.
He suffered severe aches alongside pins and needles days after receiving his first dose of the AstraZeneca jab in March last year.
The ex-security worker was taken to Royal Stoke University Hospital in Staffordshire, where he was placed onto a ventilator before being moved to Haywood Hospital last November.
He was diagnosed with Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) - a very rare and serious disorder in which a person's own immune system attacks the nerves and which can sometimes lead to paralysis.
Anthony has now been awarded a £120,000 tax-free payout after his wife, Nicola Shingler, applied for the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme (VDPS) in May 2021.
He told StokeonTrentLive: "I am glad I have been awarded the amount. I am relieved because it takes some of the stress from us with the bills and everything else. It gives us a chance to pay back what we borrowed.
"We will have to adapt the bathroom so I have a walk-in shower because at the minute I have to step in so I can’t use it because it’s too high. This money will allow us to get the wet-room and use the bathroom.
"At the minute, there’s no chance of me going back to work."
The scheme provides a singular payment to people who have been left severely disabled as a result of a vaccination.
To be eligible, an applicant has to be 60% disabled and give medical evidence from doctors.
Anthony, from Northwood, continued: “I am not looking at this as a retirement fund because it isn’t. It’s nowhere near enough. I’ve got at least another seven to 10 years of working life left in me to do. It was my plan to do that but I can’t see that happening.
“I will be recovering for the next three years. I will need specialist equipment to help my quality of life. We might have to buy a stairlift because that’s being rented by a charity at the moment. It would cost around £5,000 to buy.
“My advice to others is to keep fighting, it’s a long process but apply for the scheme. Get regular updates and make sure you’ve got your medical records and look at them yourself.”
Nicola discovered through a phone call on Tuesday that Anthony would receive the payout - more than a year after she applied.
The 49-year-old said: "Anthony was in the hospital when I applied for it. The process has been horrendous all the way, it’s been a battle. The system wasn’t set up to take on people making the claims.
"If you haven’t got one of the two criteria then you may not be awarded anything - the bar is too high."
Figures show that in the year up to this January, 499 cases of GBS linked to the AstraZeneca vaccine have been identified, including five which were fatal.
Nicola added: "£120,000 sounds like a lot but for people who have got children to bring up it doesn't really compensate. Tony has already lost a full year’s wage.
“It isn’t something we can look to the future and think it’s going to help if he doesn’t get back into work. We can’t look at it to compensate for the personal pain and suffering.
"We really don’t know how long Tony is going to be the way he is and that’s the hardest bit. The doctors don’t know either.
"I’ve had to fight for this. It’s been so stressful for me. It’s given us a little respite from the financial aspect as I was worrying about paying the bills all the time.
"There’s still a lot of hard work we’ve got with Tony with the physical and care aspect. It’s something we weren’t expecting to be doing - we've had to battle 13 months for this.
"It’s the first GBS case in the UK to be awarded, we believe. We hope it gives other people suffering a glimmer of hope."
Most people will usually recover from GBS within six months to a year, according to the NHS, but around one in five people are left with long-term problems such as being unable to walk without assistance.
In an online post about GBS in 2020, the health service stated: "In the past, vaccinations (particularly the flu vaccine used in the US during a swine flu outbreak in 1976) were linked to an increased risk of Guillain-Barré syndrome."
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is monitoring all potential side effects reported to them.
Various coronavirus vaccines have been approved, and more than 50 million people in the UK have now had at least one dose.
Pfizer, Astra-Zeneca and Moderna have all developed safe and effective jabs that can significantly reduce a person's chances of becoming seriously ill with Covid-19.
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: "Since the NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) took over administration of the VDPS from DWP in November 2021, DHSC and NHSBSA have been working together to improve the VDPS to make the process simpler, swifter and more accessible for claimants.
"NHSBSA is now improving the claimant journey by making it faster, more accessible, and with clearer and more regular communication on the progress of their claim. This includes digitisation and modernisation of the process, including of the VDPS claim form.
"The VDPS is not designed to cover all expenses associated with severe disablement. It is not a compensation scheme. Instead it is a payment to recognise that the person could have been harmed by having a vaccine."
