Josh Hadfield and his mum

A young boy of 7 who developed narcolepsy because of the swine flu jab has been denied compensation because doctors said he was not ill enough.

This is despite the fact that he sleeps 19 hours each day and is forced to take a cocktail of drugs to prevent himself from nodding off every five minutes.

Josh Hadfield developed the condition within three weeks of receiving the injection and now suffers from the debilitating condition.
Since 2011 the vaccination has not been given to under-20s because of the risk of narcolepsy.

The attacks can occur when he is walking, eating or sleeping and he can also suffer seizures when he laughs.

Earlier this year, the government admitted that the Pandemrix jab could be to blame and Josh’s mother Caroline hoped she would get financial assistance to deal with his condition.
But Josh has now been told he does not have a ‘severe’ enough disability to qualify for compensation.

Ms Hadfield, 42, has spoken of her contempt for the decision and said: “At the end of the day this vaccine has irreversibly changed his life forever and there’s nothing we can do about this. He has to take a very, very strong cocktail of drugs each day just to get through the day.”

She was originally persuaded to get her son the jab in 2010, by a doctor who claimed that Josh could be at risk of swine flu because he was under five at the time.

The narcolepsy started just weeks after they made the fatal decision to give her son the vaccine.She added that at the time, the government had a “knee-jerk” reaction to the swine flu vaccine, and pushed for as many people to get it as possible. This ultimately changed her sons life forever.

Ms Hadfield, said: “He was a perfectly healthy energetic four-year-old before the vaccination, but within two weeks he was getting more tired and after three weeks he was sleeping for 19 hours a day. Things then developed quickly and he struggled to walk.Nothing could convince me it was anything but the jab which caused Josh’s conditions.”

She added that she felt that as a family, they were constantly “treading on eggshells” because one false move could render Josh in a mini-coma like state for hours.

The vaccine was widely used in the UK between 2009 to 2010 at the height of the flu pandemic and was given to almost one million children between the ages of six-months-old and five-years-old.

Research by the UK Health Protection Agency has revealed that giving the jab to young children increases their chance of developing narcolepsy by 14 times.

Last month, the Government made a dramatic U-turn over Josh’s condition, admitting that, ‘on the balance of probability the jab contributed to his condition’.

But they then added: ‘It has not been accepted that disablement from vaccination is severe, i.e. at least 60 per cent.’

Families could be entitled to £120,000 through the Vaccine Damage Payments Scheme if they can prove ‘severe’ disability.

The government has also been unable to answer why there seems to be a fresh flu pandemic every few years or so with different vaccines promoted for each and every one. Certainly this was the case with Sars, Bird Flu and then Swine flu, to name just a few cases.