A Cumbrian woman is the first person to be awarded compensation after her fiance died eight days after he was given a COVID-19 vaccine – but is calling on the Government to update the scheme.
Vikki Spit, of Alston, has been awarded £120,000 following a long legal battle.
Zion, 48, fell ill on May 13 2021 with headache-type symptoms. Vikki said paramedics who attended Zion, despite the window for a blood clot being four to 28 days post-vaccination, did not recognise that his symptoms could be linked to the AstraZeneca vaccine and so did not receive the right tests.
Doctors confirmed that his death was due to a complication of the vaccine.
Her solicitors said that the compensation authority only accepted Zion’s cause of death this month.
A statement from the solicitors said: “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 40s 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 is calling for the scheme to be reformed to allow others who have been injured by the vaccine to receive compensation more easily.
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 40s 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.”
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 died.
To be eligible for the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme, victims must show that they have become 60 per cent 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 rethought. 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 fiancé’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.”
