KUALA LUMPUR – A 67-year-old man, now wheelchair-bound, is suing the government and health officials, alleging severe health complications from the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine.
Ser Choon Ing received his first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine in June 2021. He tested positive for Covid-19 less than a month later and underwent a 12-day treatment at Subang Jaya Medical Centre.
However, on August 8 2021, just 15 days after his recovery, Ser was admitted to the intensive care unit at University Malaya Medical Centre (UMMC) in a comatose state with a pneumonia infection.
Former health director-general Tan Sri Noor Hisham Abdullah, the federal government and AstraZeneca Sdn Bhd were named as defendants in Ser’s suit.
He claims exemplary, general, and aggravated damages from all defendants in addition to special damages of at least RM454,300.
“In the ICU, the Plaintiff was put on a ventilator and given antibiotics.
“To prevent further pain due to the ventilation process and lack of appropriate antibiotics, the Plaintiff continued to be in a coma for six days,” Ser’s statement of claim said.
Although Ser recovered from the coma and pneumonia, the 67-year-old experienced swelling and pain in his left leg as a result of a blood clot in his vein in addition to suffering from “illusions and confusions”.
Ser claimed that by June 2023, the pain in his lower left limb continued to intensify and he was unable to walk, prompting him to seek further treatment at Tung Shin Hospital.
However, because the “illusions and confusions” continued, it was discovered that the shunting system implanted in his brain in 2019 due to hydrocephalus began to bleed.
“The Plaintiff was transferred to Sunway Hospital for observation, and upon the advice of a specialist, the shunting implant was adjusted and the bleeding stopped which resulted in the plaintiff recovering from illusions and confusions,” the statement of claim added.
In court filings dated July 9, Ser mentioned he believes that AstraZeneca’s vaccine caused thrombosis-thrombosispheltitis syndrome (TTS) in his shunting system resulting in brain haemorrhage.
Ser claims until now, he is unable to walk and use a wheelchair to move around as a result of swelling and pain in both his feet. Meanwhile, the blood clot in his left thigh remains unchanged.
In April this year, another class action suit in Britain saw AstraZeneca acknowledge that its Covid-19 vaccine could trigger rare but severe side effects – including blood clotting.
AstraZeneca conceded in court documents that its vaccine may lead to a rare condition known as thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome (TTS), characterised by blood clots and low platelet counts.
Not long after, the company said it had initiated the worldwide withdrawal of its Covid-19 vaccine due to a “surplus of available updated vaccines” since the pandemic.
On May 28, Noor Hisham said the recent cases of heart attacks, stroke and blood clots have nothing to do with AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccines.
In an X posting, Hisham explained that the so-called side effect, known as vaccine-induced immune thrombotic thrombocytopenia (VITT), only happens between four days and four weeks after the jab.
He added that the government did not offer the AstraZeneca jab to those in the high-risk category or who had a history of blood clots, even though VITT is only likely to happen every four in a million jabs. – July 31, 2024