(CMC) — A woman has filed a lawsuit against the Barbados Government alleging that she has suffered serious health complications after receiving two doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine in 2021.
The woman, through her attorney, has named the Office of the Attorney General as the defendant in the 2024 claim, in which she alleges that the Health and Wellness Ministry is liable for injuries she sustained as a result of receiving the vaccine.
The woman, who is being represented by constitutional attorney, King’s Counsel Larry Smith, alleges that the vaccine administered to her was “defective” and that the Government failed to provide a product that was as safe as she was entitled to expect under the Consumer Protection Act.
According to the court document, the woman received her first dose of the vaccine on or about April 23, 2021, and the second dose in June of that year. About two months later, she noticed that she had developed a “swollen bruise”, which was accompanied by “severe pain” below her right knee.
She subsequently visited a doctor on two occasions after experiencing additional symptoms, including severe chest pain and shortness of breath, according to the online publication Barbados TODAY, which said it had seen a copy of the court document.
The document stated that on both occasions, the doctor was unable to determine the cause of her injuries. She said that her symptoms reportedly worsened, with bruising spreading across her body, severe shortness of breath and declining energy levels. As a result, she returned to the doctor who referred her to a specialist for haematology assessments and testing.
The claim states that the pharmacovigilance team of the Barbados Drug Service conducted assessments into what was described as “a suspected drug-induced reaction post vaccination of the COVID-19 AstraZeneca vaccine”, associated with the batch of the last dose she had received. Blood samples were also collected and tested at the Barbados Reference Laboratory.
According to the court filing, the results indicated that the symptoms the woman was experiencing were vaccine-induced blood clotting side effects.
The final medical assessment described her condition as “a suspected case of vasculitis following the administration of the COVID-19 AstraZeneca vaccine on June 25, 2021”.
The woman alleges that between January 24, 2022 and July 7, 2023, she wrote five letters to the defendant, raising concerns about the Government’s liability for her condition. However, according to the claim, the Government has not submitted a “substantive reply”.
The court documents state that in early February 2022, the woman received an email from the Prime Minister’s Office acknowledging receipt of the January 24, 2022 letter she sent, and advising that the correspondence had been forwarded to the chief medical officer for “attention and follow-up action”.
A pre-action letter was subsequently sent to the chief medical officer seeking compensation for the vaccine injury with the lawsuit alleging negligence on the part of the Government, including failure to provide mechanisms to support participants suffering from severe complications from vaccines administered under the Barbados COVID-19 Vaccination Programme as well as failure to respond to the claimant regarding her condition despite sufficient knowledge of her condition.
The woman is seeking general damages for pain, suffering and loss of amenities, special damages including loss of earnings, legal costs with interest of six per cent per annum, and any other relief the court considers appropriate.
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