A woman has become the first person to have been successfully awarded compensation over a Covid-19 vaccine after her fiancé tragically died after receiving the AstraZeneca jab.
Vikki Spit's fiancée, Zion, 48, from Alston, near the Northumberland - Cumbria border, fell ill on May 13, 2021, eight days after he received the AstraZeneca vaccine. Despite the window for a blood clot being 4 to 28 days post-vaccination, Vikki said paramedics did not recognise that Zion's headache symptoms could be linked to the AstraZeneca vaccine.
Consequently, Zion did not receive the appropriate tests and treatment and tragically died at Newcastle's Royal Victoria Infirmary. Following a long legal battle, Vikki has been awarded the fixed compensation amount of £120,000 under the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme 1979 in relation to a Covid-19 vaccine.
While doctors very quickly realised that Zion’s death was due to a complication of the vaccine, which was later confirmed by his death certificate, the NHS Business Services Authority (the administrators of the compensation scheme) only accepted this cause of death over a year later, on Friday, June 17, 2022. The length of time taken to process the application has meant that Vikki has had to incur numerous debts during the interim period as she struggled without Zion’s earnings.
As a result, Vikki is now calling on the government to increase the maximum compensation amount in order to better reflect current conditions and represent the loss of earnings that a person in their forties would have made before their retirement. The maximum figure for compensation (£120,000) has failed to keep pace with inflation. The figure was set at £10,000 in 1979, when legislation was passed, which equates to roughly £180,000 now.
Vikki said: "I am still heartbroken by the sudden loss of my partner of 21 years, and alongside this emotional trauma, I have also been faced with financial hardship as a result of the loss of Zion’s contribution to household finances. The £120,000 payment from the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme does not begin to cover the loss of earnings that a person in their forties would have made before they retired. There just isn’t the proper financial aid coming from the government to support those who have lost family to the vaccine.
"I call upon the NHS Business Services Authority and government to work together to create a Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme that is fit for 2022. The maximum award has fallen well short of inflation, even before the current cost of living crisis, and the time taken to make a claim must be shortened, no one should be out of pocket because a loved one died as a result of a vaccination."
Vikki is also calling for the scheme to be reformed to allow others who have been injured by the vaccine to receive compensation more easily. In order to be eligible for the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme, victims must show that they have become 60% disabled as a result of the vaccination – a threshold which is seen by many to be too high.
James Bell, Medical Negligence Partner at Hodge Jones & Allen said: "While I am glad that Vikki has been able to receive some restitution for the hardship she has faced as a result of Zion’s death, the scheme simply isn’t fit for purpose. The Vaccine Damage Repayment Scheme needs to be urgently updated and re-thought. Not only has the application process been lengthy and inefficient, but the compensation Vikki received fails to reflect and remediate the full economic impact of her fiancée’s death.
"While nothing can be done to heal the emotional impacts, the least the scheme can do is ensure that loved ones left behind are not faced with further pain. The government has done a great job of protecting public health by encouraging mass uptake of the vaccine; this duty of care now needs to extend to the few unlucky individuals who took this advice and suffered the consequences."
Zion and Vikki Spit were both members of glam-punk band SPiT LiKE THiS. Prior to his death, Zion was working as a writer and filmmaker, and his fiancée continues to work as a force-free horse trainer in Northumberland. Zion also donated his liver and kidneys and changed three lives after he had passed away.
The Department of Health and Social Care did not wish to comment. However, they stressed that all Covid vaccines used in the UK had undergone "robust clinical trials" and met the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency’s (MHRA) strict standards of safety, effectiveness and quality.
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