A court ruled that the state must compensate the family of a teacher in her 20s who died after suspected symptoms of thrombocytopenia with thrombosis (TTS) following a COVID-19 vaccination. The court said that even if a causal link between the vaccination and the death is not medically proven with certainty, compensation should be determined by considering temporal proximity and the possibility of other causes.
According to legal sources on the 10th, the Seoul Administrative Court's Administrative Division 14 (presiding judge Lee Sang-deok, Director General judge) ruled in favor of the plaintiff on Apr. 14 in a suit filed by the bereaved family of a person surnamed Hwang seeking to overturn the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency's decision to deny compensation for adverse reactions after a COVID-19 vaccination.
Hwang, who was a teacher, received a first dose of the Pfizer vaccine on July 28, 2021. Starting Aug. 6 of the same year, Hwang showed abnormal symptoms and received a suspected diagnosis of thrombocytopenia with thrombosis. TTS is a rare adverse reaction in which platelet counts drop while clots form inside blood vessels, and it was one of the key issues in discussions of COVID-19 vaccine adverse reactions.
Hwang underwent treatment including a small intestine resection but died at age 24 in September of the same year from acute liver failure and septic shock. The family applied for vaccination injury compensation, but the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency denied compensation, saying it was difficult to recognize a causal link between the vaccination and the death. The family then filed an administrative suit.
The bench found the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency's disposition unlawful. The bench said, "It is not necessarily required that a causal link between vaccination and illness be proven with medical certainty," and judged that "if there is a possibility in light of indirect factual circumstances, causation can be recognized."
The bench particularly noted that Hwang showed abnormal symptoms nine days after receiving the vaccine. Given the temporal closeness between the shot and the onset of symptoms, and considering the course of treatment that followed and the eventual death, the court said it is difficult to rule out a connection between the vaccination and the death.
The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency argued that Hwang's underlying Kimura disease could have caused the thrombosis. Kimura disease is known as a rare condition that mainly causes chronic inflammation in lymph nodes or soft tissue. However, the bench determined it was difficult to view Kimura disease as the primary cause of the thrombosis that occurred immediately after the vaccination.
The bench also said compensation cannot be denied solely because research on the relationship between the vaccine and thrombosis is insufficient. It cited the fact that study results suggesting a link have been reported as part of its reasoning.
It was also taken into account that Hwang, as a teacher, was included among priority groups and received the vaccine. The bench sided with the family on the grounds that when a person is vaccinated under the national quarantine policy and suffers harm from an adverse reaction, the determination of causation should not be excessively strict.