The Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP) has agreed to give NT$1.5 million (US$46,164) in compensation to the family of a woman in her 90s who went into anaphylactic shock about five to 10 minutes after receiving a dose of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine and died after emergency treatment in July 2022.
The case was revealed in the meeting minutes of a VICP review committee meeting on April 25, which was released recently.
The elderly woman, surnamed Hsu (許), was from Changhua County and had a medical record of asthma, hypertensive heart disease and diabetes. She showed skin paleness and her blood pressure dropped after receiving a dose of Moderna’s vaccine, and eventually died, the meeting minutes said.
Photo: Lin Hui-chin, Taipei Times
An autopsy found granulated mast cells in the woman’s liver, indicating anaphylactic shock, which is a severe and life-threatening allergic reaction.
The committee agreed to award Hsu’s family with compensation of NT$1.5 million and a funeral subsidy of NT$300,000, the meeting minutes showed.
Asked for comment, Centers for Disease Control Deputy Director-General Tseng Shu-hui (曾淑慧) yesterday said the woman lived in a residential long-term care facility, and that she received the vaccine in July 2022.
The woman’s symptoms appeared about five to 10 minutes after getting the vaccine shot, and she was rushed to an emergency room, she said.
Given that the autopsy indicated anaphylactic shock and considering Hsu’s multiple underlying health conditions — including asthma, hypertensive heart disease, hyperthyroidism, diabetes and Parkinson’s disease — worsened her allergic reaction, the committee deemed her death COVID-19 vaccine-related, Tseng said.
Separately, the meeting minutes of a VICP review committee meeting on March 28 showed that a Taichung man in his 50s, surnamed Chu (朱), was awarded NT$1 million as compensation for the adverse side effects caused by a flu vaccine.
The man experienced left side paralysis, articulation disorder and facial palsy after receiving a dose of flu vaccine, the minutes said.
He was rushed to the hospital, where a carotid ultrasound was performed and found he had arterial stenosis.
Arterial stenosis is caused by chronic pathological changes and does not suddenly develop in a short period of time. Although the blood test showed that the man had a viral infection, the flu vaccine is an inactivated vaccine that cannot cause an active infection.
However, as the committee could not determine whether the man’s transverse myelitis, a neurological disorder caused by inflammation of the spinal cord, is associated with the flu vaccine, he is to be given relief of NT$1 million.
Tseng said there are still more than 2,000 cases of vaccine injury compensation waiting to be reviewed, and that the committee has been reviewing about 200 to 300 cases per month.
Additional reporting by CNA
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