Kerala post-graduate pupil dies after taking Covishield; dad and mom transfer HC looking for justice

By Express News Service

KOCHI: The dad and mom of a 19-year-old pupil on Friday approached the Kerala High Court alleging that their daughter died because of the obligatory administration of the Covishield vaccine manufactured by the Serum Institute of India. They sought Rs 1 crore as compensation for the demise of their solely daughter.

In the petition, Sabu C. Thomas and his spouse Jean George of Pathanamthitta submitted that their daughter Nova Sabu, an MA Literature pupil, was vaccinated with Covishiled from a personal hospital in Kochi. On the very subsequent day, she fell unwell.

Nova was taken to a hospital the place she was given symptomatic therapy for headache and fever. She was handled in casualty with Dolo IV injection and Emeset 2ml injection and was discharged on the identical day.

Then she was taken to a different hospital with complaints of decreased responsiveness, tiredness, headache, and a historical past of vomiting. While on the hospital, she grew to become unconscious and developed generalised convulsion. Then she was intubated and placed on a ventilator. On August 12, 2021, she died and the postmortem report steered that “the girl died of the intracerebral bleeding -decease of brain”, the petition mentioned. She was examined unfavourable for Covid.

The petitioners filed a criticism earlier than the Human Rights Commission claiming compensation and based mostly on that an inquiry was carried out by the District Medical Officer, Pathanamthitta.

It discovered that there isn’t a accessible documentary proof to recommend that Nova Sabu had any previous neurological sickness.

Her signs began after she has taken the primary dose of the Covishield vaccine. After verifying the hospital information, the inquiry reveals that “Nova Sabu might have suffered from thrombocytopenia, thrombosis syndrome which is an immunogenic response to the Covishield vaccine, which is a rare condition which occurs following Covidshield vaccination. Studies from the UK suggest an incidence of 20.3 per million doses in people aged 18 to 49 years.”

The petitioner alleged that the demise of their daughter was direct after impact by the administration of the Covishield Vaccine. Vaccination was made obligatory by the federal government and their daughter had no choice however to e-book the accessible slot from the vaccination web site.

They argued that the producer of the vaccine, in addition to the Government of India and the State, are collectively and severally liable to compensate the petitioners.

“The Union Government as well as the State Government, especially the Health and Family Welfare Department ought to have studied and understood the after-effects of the vaccine and should have issued warnings and guidelines regarding the fatal element of the vaccine administration. Instead, the Government has only encouraged its use by making it compulsory and also preventing the public by issuing general warnings against spreading any adverse comments/news regarding the use of vaccines,” the petition mentioned.

The petitioners additionally sought to declare that their daughter died consequent to the problems of Covishield vaccination and the federal government and manufacturing firm are accountable and liable to compensate them.

When the petition got here up for listening to on Friday, Justice N Nagaresh sought the view of the central authorities on the petition.