KOCHI: As their only daughter, 19-year-old Post Graduate student died over the adverse effects after immunised first dose of “Covishield,” a prescribed vaccine for coronavirus, her parents approached the Kerala High Court seeking Rs 1crore compensation for the death.

The parents, in their claim alleged that their daughter died due to the compulsory administration of the Covishield vaccine manufactured by the Serum Institute of India.

In the petition, Sabu C Thomas and his wife Jean George from Pathanamthitta stated that their daughter Nova Sabu, an MA Literature student, was vaccinated with Covishiled from a private hospital in Kochi. On the very next day, she fell unwell.
Nova was taken to a hospital where she was given symptomatic treatment for headache and fever. She was treated in casualty with Dolo IV injection and Emeset 2ml injection and was discharged on the same day.

Then she was taken to another hospital with complaints of reduced responsiveness, tiredness, headache, and a history of vomiting. While at the hospital, she became unconscious and developed generalised convulsion. Then she was intubated and put on a ventilator. On August 12, 2021, she died and the postmortem report stated that “the girl died of the intracerebral bleeding -decease of brain”, the petition said. She was tested negative for Covid.

They also filed a complaint before the Human Rights Commission claiming compensation and based on that an inquiry was conducted by the District Medical Officer, Pathanamthitta.

It found that there is no available documentary evidence to suggest that Nova Sabu had any preceding neurological illness.

Her symptoms started after she has taken the first dose of the Covishield vaccine. After verifying the hospital records, 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 death of their daughter was direct after effect by the administration of the Covishield Vaccine. Vaccination was made compulsory by the government and their daughter had no option but to book the available slot from the vaccination website.

They argued that the manufacturer of the vaccine, as well as the Government of India and the State, are jointly and severally liable to compensate the petitioners.