A South Korean court has dismissed a lawsuit filed by the family of an elderly woman who died shortly after receiving a COVID-19 vaccine. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
SEOUL, Mar. 11 (Korea Bizwire) – A South Korean court has dismissed a lawsuit filed by the family of an elderly woman who died shortly after receiving a COVID-19 vaccine, ruling that compensation from the government is limited to side effects with a medically recognized causal relationship.
The Seoul Administrative Court ruled against the plaintiff, identified only as A, who had sought to overturn the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency’s decision not to provide compensation for the death of their 88-year-old mother.
The woman received her first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine on April 23, 2021, and within an hour and a half, she complained of chest pain. Despite being able to walk to the ambulance on her own, she lost consciousness en route to the hospital and was pronounced dead at 3:13 p.m., just two hours and 36 minutes post-vaccination.
The family applied for compensation under the Infectious Diseases Control and Prevention Act, attributing her death directly to the vaccine. However, the KDCA denied the claim in May of the following year, stating that an autopsy revealed the cause of death to be an aortic dissection, unrelated to the vaccine.
The plaintiff argued that despite the elderly woman’s history of hypertension, which was under control through medication, her sudden health deterioration and subsequent death were directly linked to her vaccination.
They also referenced a statement made by former President Moon Jae-in in January 2021, before vaccines were introduced in South Korea, in which he promised that the government would fully assume responsibility for vaccine side effects and encouraged vaccination among the elderly.
The court acknowledged the temporal proximity between the vaccination and the woman’s death but found no causal link. It concluded that the most plausible cause of death was her pre-existing hypertension leading to an aortic dissection, a condition the court noted had not been proven to be associated with COVID-19 vaccines.
Research published in September 2022 showed no link between vaccines and aortic dissection, and data suggested that incidences of the condition had decreased despite widespread vaccination.
Regarding Moon’s press conference, the court ruled that his statement could not be interpreted as a guarantee of compensation for all health issues following vaccination, dismissing the argument that the principle of trust protection had been violated.
M. H. Lee (mhlee@koreabizwire.com)
