Boy who developed narcolepsy after swine flu jab denied compensation

A seven-year-old who developed narcolepsy after having the swine flu vaccine has been refused compensation because he is not ill enough – despite the fact he sleeps for 19 hours a day.

Josh Hadfield developed the condition within three weeks of receiving the injection and now suffers ‘attacks’ which can cause him to doze throughout the day. 

Until he started medication he fell asleep up to every five minutes - even when he was walking, eating and swimming - and suffered sudden seizures when he laughed.

Earlier this year, the Government admitted that the Pandemrix jab could be to blame and Josh’s mother Caroline hoped she would get financial assistance to deal with his condition. 

But Josh has now been told he does not have a ‘severe’ enough disability to qualify for compensation. 

Ms Hadfield, 42, declared the decision ‘disgusting’ and said the condition had 
irreversibly changed his life.

She said: ‘At the end of the day this vaccine has irreversibly changed his life forever and there’s nothing we can do about this.

‘He has to take a very, very strong cocktail of drugs each day just to get through the day.’

Josh received the vaccine at his local GP surgery on January 21, 2010 after his 
mother was told he was ‘at risk’ of the H1N1 virus because he was under five.

But Ms Hadfield, of Frome, Somerset, said that within weeks of him having the vaccine she noticed a drastic change in her son.

‘He was a perfectly healthy energetic four-year-old before the vaccination, but within two weeks he was getting more tired and after three weeks he was sleeping for 19 hours a day.

‘Things then developed quickly and he struggled to walk.

‘Nothing could convince me it was anything but the jab which caused Josh’s conditions.

‘The Government had a knee-jerk reaction to swine flu and put out this vaccine, giving it to very young children.’

Josh is now on medication to control the condition but the family lives in constant fear of narcolepsy attacks.

Ms Hadfield, a civil servant, said: ‘Laughter can trigger attacks and sometimes he is too anxious to go out for fear of an incident. 

‘You see other children who can laugh and enjoy things and yes Josh can laugh and enjoy things but his reaction means that he goes unconscious.

‘We feel we are constantly treading on eggshells.’

The vaccine was widely used in the UK during the 2009 to 2010 flu pandemic 
and was given to almost one million children between the ages of six-months-old and five-years-old.

However, since 2011 it has not been given to people under the age of 20 because of the risk of narcolepsy.

The UK Health Protection Agency has found that giving the jab to young children increases their chance of developing narcolepsy by 14 times.

Researchers estimate that the chance of developing narcolepsy after receiving a dose of the vaccine is somewhere between one in 52,000 and one in 52,750.
Last month, the Government made a dramatic U-turn over Josh’s condition, admitting that, ‘on the balance of probability the jab contributed to his condition’.

But they then added: ‘It has not been accepted that disablement from vaccination is severe, i.e. at least 60 per cent.’

Families could be entitled to £120,000 through the Vaccine Damage Payments Scheme if they can prove ‘severe’ disability.

But Ms Hadfield said: ‘Basically to get compensation you need to have something along the lines of loss of eyesight, loss of hearing, loss of limbs or basically not being able to do anything at all which I think is absolutely disgusting.’

A spokesperson for the Department for Work and Pensions, which runs the Vaccine Damage Payments Scheme, said: ‘DWP has looked at some vaccine damage payments cases again in light of new information regarding swine flu and narcolepsy provided by the Department for Health.

‘We cannot comment on the specifics of individual cases but can confirm that once this new information was taken into account it was decided, on balance of probability, in some cases that causation was proved.’

Ms Hadfield has now applied for legal aid to appeal against the decision.

This article is courtesy from the Daily Mail.