The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) has lost an appeal in a lawsuit filed by the bereaved family of a patient who died after receiving a COVID-19 vaccination, following its decision to challenge the initial ruling in favor of compensation.
The court ruled that even if a patient had an underlying medical condition, if there is a possibility that the vaccine aggravated the condition, a causal relationship between the vaccination and the death can be recognized.
The Seoul High Court ruled in favor of the plaintiff in the lawsuit filed by the bereaved family of a person identified as A, who died after receiving a COVID-19 vaccine, against the KDCA commissioner to cancel the refusal of vaccination injury compensation, upholding the lower court's decision.
A collapsed about two hours after receiving the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine in December 2021 and was taken to a hospital, where A died in January of the following year.
The bereaved family applied for damage compensation, claiming that the vaccination caused the death. However, the KDCA refused compensation, stating that the direct cause of death was intracranial hemorrhage and that it was difficult to recognize a causal relationship with the vaccine.
The court, however, reached a different conclusion.
The first-instance court judged that even though A had an underlying medical condition known as moyamoya disease, if there was a possibility that the vaccination aggravated the condition beyond its natural progression, a causal relationship between the vaccination and the death could be acknowledged.
The appellate court maintained the same judgment.
The court stated, "Even if moyamoya disease affected the death, as long as there is a possibility that the vaccine aggravated the condition beyond its natural progression, it is difficult to see the death as having been caused by factors other than the vaccination."
The court also rejected the KDCA's argument that sufficient clinical cases of the vaccine had been accumulated to establish its safety.
The court pointed out that since the KDCA itself was closely monitoring adverse reactions following vaccination at the time, it could not be concluded that the safety of the vaccine was fully guaranteed.
In addition, the court determined that citing a lack of accumulated related research is not an appropriate basis for denying the causal relationship between the vaccine and the death.
(Reported by Kim Minjeong | Video by Lee Da-in | Graphics by Lee Jung-joo | Produced by SBS Digital News)
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