Dad is “paralyzed” after a rare Covid shock reaction won a £120,000 payout in a “horrific” lawsuit

Anthony Shingler, 58, received the £120,000 tax-free payout on Tuesday after his wife Nicola applied for the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme more than a year ago

A fit and healthy father who says he was ‘paralyzed by the Covid vaccine’ in a rare reaction has won a £120,000 payout in what is believed to be a first in the UK.

Anthony Shingler, 58, recently returned to his family after 420 days in hospital.

Days after receiving his first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine in March last year, he was experiencing severe pain along with tingling.

The former security guard was taken to Royal Stoke University Hospital in Staffordshire, where he was put on a ventilator before being transferred to Haywood Hospital last November.

He has been diagnosed with Guillain-Barré Syndrome (GBS) – a very rare and serious condition in which your own immune system attacks your nerves and can sometimes lead to paralysis.

Anthony has now been awarded a £120,000 tax-free payout after his wife Nicola Shingler filed for the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme (VDPS) in May 2021.

He said StokeonTrentLive : “I am glad that I received the amount. I’m relieved because it takes some of the stress out of the bills and everything else. It gives us the opportunity to repay what we have borrowed.

“We need to adapt the bathroom so I have a walk in shower because at the moment I have to step in so I can’t use it because it’s too high. With this money we can get the wet room and use the bathroom.

“At the moment I have no chance to go back to work.”

The system provides a one-time payment for people who are severely disabled as a result of vaccination.

To be eligible, an applicant must be 60% disabled and provide medical evidence from physicians.

Anthony, from Northwood, continued: “I don’t consider this a retirement fund because it isn’t. It’s not nearly enough. I still have at least seven to ten years of working life ahead of me. That was my plan, but I can’t imagine it.

“I will recover for the next three years. I need special gear to improve my quality of life. We may need to buy a stairlift because a charity is renting it. The acquisition would cost around £5,000.

“My advice to others is to keep fighting, it’s a long process but apply to the scheme. Get regular updates and make sure you have your medical records and check them out for yourself.”

Nicola found out through a call on Tuesday that Anthony would receive the payout – more than a year after she applied.

The 49-year-old said: “Anthony was in hospital when I applied for it. The process was horrible the whole time, it was a struggle. The system was not designed to take on people making the claims.

“If you don’t meet one of the two criteria, you might not be awarded anything – the bar is set too high.”

Figures show that in the year to January this year, 499 GBS cases linked to the AstraZeneca vaccine were identified, including five fatalities.

Nicola added: “£120,000 sounds like a lot but for people who have children to raise it’s not really compensation. Tony has already lost a year’s wages.

“We cannot look to the future and believe that if he does not return to work it will help. We cannot look at it to compensate for personal pain and suffering.

“We really don’t know how long Tony is going to stay the way he is and that’s the hardest part. The doctors don’t know either.

“I had to fight for it. It was so stressful for me. It gave us a little break from the financial aspect as I was constantly worrying about paying the bills.

“There’s still a lot of hard work that we have to do with Tony in terms of the physical and grooming aspect. It’s something we didn’t expect – we had to fight for it for 13 months.

“We believe this is the first GBS case to be awarded in the UK. We hope he gives a glimmer of hope to other suffering people.”

According to the NHS, most people usually recover from GBS within six months to a year, but around one in five people are left with long-term problems, such as: B. Inability to walk unaided.

In an online post about GBS in 2020, the health service explained: “Historically, vaccinations (particularly the flu vaccine used in the US during a 1976 swine flu outbreak) have been associated with an increased risk of Guillain-Barré syndrome. “

The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) monitors all potential side effects that are reported to it.

Various coronavirus vaccines have been approved and more than 50 million people in the UK have now received at least one dose.

Pfizer, Astra-Zeneca and Moderna have all developed safe and effective vaccines that can significantly reduce the chance of contracting serious illness from Covid-19.

A Department for Health and Social Care spokesman said: “Since the NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) took over administration of the VDPS from DWP in November 2021, the DHSC and NHSBSA have been working together to improve the VDPS and make the process easier and faster design and more accessible to applicants.

“The NHSBSA is now improving the claimant journey by making it faster, more accessible and with clearer and more regular communication about the progress of their claim. This includes digitizing and modernizing the process, including the VDPS application form.

“The VDPS is not intended to cover all costs associated with a severe disability. It is not a compensation scheme, but a payment to acknowledge that vaccination could have harmed the person.”