Family of doctor who died post Covid vaccination to move court

The family of Sneha Lunawat, a 34-year-old doctor who died after receiving Covid-19 vaccine early this year, is planning to approach the court to claim compensation and ensure timely and appropriate investigation by the committee on adverse events.

While the National Adverse Events Following Immunisation (AEFI) committee has confirmed that Lunawat died due to vaccine-induced thrombotic thrombocytopenia, her family is concerned about the inadequate response from the government and Serum Institute of India (SII).

"Almost after seven months, the government has released the assessment report. We got to know about it on our own as we used to check the website every day," said Samruddhi Lunawat, Sneha's younger sister.


An email sent to SII did not elicit any response till press time Wednesday.

In its assessment report, the national AEFI committee said the “death case for which causality assessment has been done was found to have consistent causal association to vaccination”.

The assessment was done by the committee on September 25 and its report was put up on the health ministry’s website on October 2.

Lunawat had received Covishield in January and died on March 1.

Samruddhi alleged that even after the investigations revealed that Sneha had died due to complications following vaccine, nobody has got in touch with the family yet.

“We had even emailed Serum Institute of India while she was hospitalised to help us. But they said it doesn't happen due to the vaccine,” she said.

The family had then approached the World Health Organisation (WHO) which had started investigating the case.

The government panel investigating serious adverse events arising from Covid-19 vaccinations has found minuscule but definitive risk of blood clots following the administration of Covishield vaccines in India. Earlier, it had also issued an advisory.

However, the Lunawat family feels that it is not enough.

Malini Aisola, co-convenor at All India Drugs Action Network (AIDAN), who had to step in to get the case reported, said they want people to be informed of risks through adequate promotion of advisories, responsiveness of the government in providing treatment including diagnosis, thorough investigation and compensation.

“The cases we have come across are because the families were able to approach a tertiary care institution in a big city,” she said. “One can imagine the fate of persons who cannot access such care.”