Like tens of thousands of Brits, Kam Miller knows all too well the heart-rending pain of losing a loved one during the Covid pandemic.
But her husband Neil was not killed by the virus.
Instead, he succumbed to an extremely rare complication of AstraZeneca’s vaccine — designed to protect him, and millions of others, from the virus.
Its now been two years since the 50-year-old passed.
Yet his grieving family, based in Leicester, have received no compensation and zero support, leaving widow Kam struggling with her mental health and with little choice but to sell the family home.
Kam Miller, 57, pictured left and Neil Miller right, in 2016 five years before his death. He died on May 1, 2021, aged 50 after getting his AstraZeneca Covid vaccination in March 2021
The Miller families last holiday picture together shows Kam Miller and Neil with the couple’s daughter Sophia, left and Ethan, right
The 57-year-old told MailOnline: ‘At my lowest I actually had to ring the Samaritans because I just broke down. I just couldn’t see a way through.’
The mother-of-two, who works part-time in customer services for a clothing firm, is entitled to one-off, tax-free sum of £120,000 under a Government support scheme to help those who have lost loved ones or those left ‘severely disabled’ because of a vaccine.
‘If I had that money I could save it and make it work for me,’ she told MailOnline. ‘It would make me feel secure.’
However, she is yet to see a penny — despite applying last August and her husband’s death certificate confirming his death was down to a rare reaction to AstraZeneca’s jab.
Due to the financial and emotional toll of losing her husband, who was the family’s main breadwinner, Kam decided to sell the family home, located in a leafy suburb on the outskirts of Leicester.
She said: ‘We couldn’t live there anymore — it was a constant reminder.
‘I sold that house and I bought somewhere slightly cheaper than the one we were in to get that buffer, a little bit of cash behind us.’
Since selling the house in March 2021, Kam has been relying on that extra money to help tide her over and pay for her counselling, which she needed to help her cope with her grief.
She said: ‘Everything has gone up, bills, everything. It’s all gone up and that worries me.
‘Every month I am dipping into reserves, like the money from the house. I am hoping I get this money from the Government to cover what I am using now.’
The couple’s 26-year-old daughter Sophia works in finance and lives in Cambridge with her boyfriend.
Their son Ethan, 22, is studying to become a pilot, which Neil paid for before he died. He has only recently started his training after being so floored by grief.
Kam is joining dozens of bereaved and injured Brits in a legal fight for compensation based on the argument that the AstraZeneca jab was ‘defective’, in the sense it was not as safe as people taking it were entitled to expect.
Neil died on May 1, 2021, about a month-and-a-half after getting the jab.
After his initial dose, Neil suffered some mild cold-like symptoms, like headaches, for two weeks.
His condition worsened to the point that he was forced to take himself to bed.
Mr Miller, pictured above, wrote IT manuals and was the main breadwinner, so his death has left Mrs Miller who works in customer services for a clothing firm just trying to cope with the emotional loss but also worrying over their financial future
The AstraZeneca vaccine is a genetically engineered common cold virus that used to infect chimpanzees. It has been modified to make it weak so it does not cause illness in people and loaded up with the gene for the coronavirus spike protein, which Covid-19 uses to invade human cells
In a very small number of cases — about one in 100,000 in the UK — the vaccine can set off a chain reaction which leads to the body confusing its own blood platelets for fragments of virus. The shell of the vector vaccine — the weakened cold virus used to teach cells how to neutralise Covid — sometimes acts like a magnet and attracts platelets, a protein found in the blood. For reasons the scientists are still probing, the body then mistakes these clumps as a threat and produces antibodies to fight them. The combination of the platelets and the antibodies clumping together leads to the formation of dangerous blood clots
The next day, on April 7, he was rushed to A&E, complaining of what he felt like was a heart attack, Kam said.
Medics found Neil, who spent a couple nights in hospital, had a blood clot near his heart and sent him home, armed with medication.
Two days later, on April 13, he collapsed and was rushed back to hospital.
Doctors then found blood clots in his legs, too.
This was when medics realised AstraZeneca’s vaccine could be to blame.
But by April 19, Neil was struggling to speak, read and walk as blood clots had gone to his brain.
Recalling a heartbreaking message she received from her husband while he was in hospital, Kam added: ‘He wanted to text me but he did it by mistake on the home phone.
‘So, the home phone rings in the middle of the night. It says [it’s] a message from Neil.
‘And it says, “I can’t remember the children’s birthdays.” That broke my heart when I saw what is coming home to me.
‘I thought even if he comes home, maybe it’s going to be someone I’m going to have to care for. But then I panicked thinking our lives have changed.
‘But then in the same breath, I’m thinking, “I don’t care. I’ll look after him. I’ll get him well”.’
Neil was discharged from hospital on April 26.
But just a few days later, he collapsed again, while Kam was sat at the kitchen table browsing online for presents for his 51st birthday.
In a tell-all interview with the Daily Mail’s Good Health earlier this year, Kam revealed hearing a sickening thud and told how Neil ‘was on the floor making gurgling noises’. ‘That image won’t go from my head,’ she said at the time.
The couple Kam and Neil Miller are pictured here at a wedding in 2019. Almost a month after receiving the vaccine blood clots were in his brain and Mr Miller was struggling to speak, read and walk
Common side effects, which health bosses say can affect more than 10 per cent of recipients, include fatigue, ‘flu-like’ symptoms, and pain in the arms or legs. Stomach pain, a rash and excessive sweating were uncommon, strikes roughly one in 100 people who get vaccinated
Rare (approximately one in 1,000) issues include facial drooping on one side. Very rare (one in 10,000) side effects can see people paralysed
The graph shows the cumulative number of Covid jabs dished out in the UK since the pandemic began, the percentage of each age group which has had a jab (bottom left) and the number of each Covid vaccine brand dished out
Shaking, she called for an ambulance while Sophia ran upstairs and started CPR on her father.
When paramedics arrived, they spent 45 minutes trying to resuscitate Neil.
But it was no use — he was declared dead at the scene.
Despite Neil being diagnosed with vaccine-induced thrombosis, one of the major complications of AstraZeneca’s jab, prior to his death, his autopsy ruled that he died of natural causes.
Kam had to fight for a year to change the cause of death on the certificate, which now explicitly states the jab was to blame.
‘I couldn’t even grieve, I put all my energy into getting justice,’ she said.
Stuck in a bureaucratic loop, she was bluntly told she couldn’t apply for the Government’s Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme until the death certificate was resolved.
Like so many others in her tragic situation, she insists she is not an anti-vaxxer.
Instead, Kam is compelled to continue to fight for justice for her husband and any others struggling in a similar situation.
‘Any vaccine or medication can have adverse side effects and we can accept that,’ she told MailOnline. ‘But where is the back up? Where is the support for people?’
Kam isn’t alone in her fight or her suffering.
While the AstraZeneca’s jab has been credited with helping end the pandemic and, alongside other vaccines, saving 120,000 Brits from the virus, dozens were killed or injured by the rare side effect.
Official data says have been at 73 deaths linked to this clotting side effect in the UK, though more could emerge.
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