Dad awarded compensation after developing heart issue from mandatory vaccine
An Adelaide father is set to receive hefty compensation after a mandatory Covid jab left him with a debilitating health condition.
In 2021 at the height of the Covid pandemic in Australia, 44-year-old Daniel Shepherd was required to receive tow Covid vaccinations, due to his hands on role at an aged care facility.
After having two Pfizer vaccines, he suffered some adverse effects, but dismissed his symptoms as nothing serious.
In the months after, Shepherd was required to have a booster shot when he began a new job with the Department of Child Protection in October of the same year.
In January 2022, the father was told if we wanted to keep his job as a health and childcare worker, he needed to have the jab.
After eventually agreeing to the booster, Shepherd has his third dose of Pfizer in late February 2022, but began suffering from chest pains just hours later.
"It felt like someone had their knee right on my chest," he told 9News.
The pain kept getting worse until he was rushed to hospital a few weeks later when he thought he was having a heart attack.
There he was diagnosed with post-vaccine pericarditis: an inflammation of the membrane around the heart.
His illness meant he was unable to work full time, and also meant he was unable to keep up with his young son.
"Even today with just mild exertion [I get] chest pains and then it's followed by fatigue, like severe fatigue," Shepard said.
"It's heartbreaking to have to say 'sorry buddy, daddy's tired'."
Mr Shepherd decided to take legal action after he was unable to work, launching a workers compensation claim against the government.
In a landmark ruling in mid-January, the South Australian Employment Tribunal agreed to pay weekly compensation and medical bills to Shepherd.
Doctors were unanimous in his case that the vaccine was the cause of his inability to work, but the government argued emergency directions that were in place at the time trumped the laws around workplace injury.
Pericarditis is meant to clear within a few months, but Shepherd's symptoms have plagued him for almost two years.
Image credits: 9News