Vaccine trial patient files first US lawsuit against AstraZeneca

However, she said when she experienced a severe sensation of pins and needles across her body shortly after she received the jab in November 2020, AstraZeneca did not cover the cost of her medical care.

Ms Dressen told The Telegraph she had been left unable to work after being diagnosed with peripheral neuropathy – a condition that causes numbness and pain due to damaged nerves. Her condition was classified as “post-vaccine neuropathy” because of its link to the jab.

“This thing took me out of my job – I’m still permanently disabled,” she said. “I still have that horrific nightmare of the pins and needles sensation coursing through my body, head to toe, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”

After being hospitalised several times after her vaccination, she said her medical bills had run into thousands of dollars, and that she had refused a small payout that would have limited its liability in any lawsuit.

Her complaint, filed to a court in Utah, said Ms Dressen had become “a shadow of her former self: unable to work, unable to do any athletic activity, unable to parent the way she had, and unable to drive more than a few blocks at a time”.

There is a documented link between the AstraZeneca vaccine and neurological conditions like peripheral neuropathy in some rare cases of patients who received the jab.

A study published last year in the journal Current Neurology and Neuroscience Reports found a “greater than expected occurrence of severe neurological adverse events … following different kinds of Covid-19 vaccination” but concluded that the evidence was not strong enough to recommend the vaccine be withdrawn.