The Paris Administrative Court of Appeal has ordered the National Office for Compensation of Medical Accidents (ONIAM) to pay just over 377,000 euros in compensation to a person insured with the Primary Health Insurance Fund (CPAM) of Charente-Maritime, who has suffered sudden bouts of drowsiness since being vaccinated in December 2009 against the influenza A (H1N1) virus with the Pandemrix vaccine from GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) laboratories.
Giving up on your professional project
This former saleswoman in the catering sector – who worked in gourmet restaurants – initially claimed 3 million euros in compensation from ONIAM: the Departmental House for Disabled People (MDPH) in La Rochelle awarded her a disability rate of “between 50 and 80%”.
“The person concerned was not able to provide continuous service […] due to drowsiness and fatigue caused by narcolepsy-cataplexy,” his last employers explained.
This holder of a master’s degree in legal, political, economic and management sciences (SJPEG) and then a CAP Cuisine thus had to “give up” her “project to open her own restaurant”: now registered with France Travail (formerly Pôle Emploi), she must “be content to exercise an activity of “itinerant tables” since 2019 under the status of self-entrepreneur”, reveals the administrative court of appeal of Paris in this judgment dated August 7, 2024 which has just been made public.
“Medical accident”
On the merits, national solidarity must be engaged for this “medical accident”, judges the administrative court of appeal of Paris. “Several studies […] in Europe […] showed an increased risk of narcolepsy […] in patients vaccinated against the H1N1 virus in 2009 and 2010,” she recalls in her ruling. “These studies also made it possible to observe an increased incidence of the pathology, particularly in its most serious form […]in countries that had mainly used the Pandemrix vaccine.
“Ms. XXX did not present […] “no history of hypersomnia, neither personal nor family,” the Paris Administrative Court of Appeal emphasizes. “She suffers from the most severe form of narcolepsy […]characteristic of “vaccine narcolepsy”.
This illness notably caused her to have “hypnagogic hallucinations”, meaning that she “feels like she can feel insects on her body” and this led her to pay for “treatment costs for bedbugs”. The applicant also underwent “twenty-four psychotherapeutic follow-up sessions related to the psychological consequences” of her narcolepsy-cataplexy. “It was only through painful and considerable efforts that Ms XXX was able to maintain her autonomy”, the judges further emphasised.
Drowsiness, hallucinations and cataplexy
“Ms. XXX has daytime sleepiness and drowsiness that require external stimulation and help with waking up,” the court also recalled. “She suffers from at least one cataplexy attack […] total once every two days, visual hallucinations when falling asleep at night, attention and memory disorders.
The illness also forced her to “significantly reduce her leisure activities” […] and his social activities due to falling asleep […] which she suffers from when going out to the cinema, to restaurants or to concerts”. It has even caused a “drop in libido”, by her own admission, since she lives in “fear of being the victim of a crisis […] and the occurrence of abrupt falling asleep in front of one’s partner.” “The disorders […] increase the difficulty of carrying out a family life project,” the Parisian judges deduce.
18,000 euros annual income
For this reason, they increased the amount that the National Office for Compensation for Medical Accidents will have to pay her in compensation from 256,000 euros to 377,000 euros. The applicant will also receive an “annual annuity” of 18,000 euros and will be reimbursed for her psychotherapy sessions.
This decision comes at the end of a grueling legal process, which saw the Paris administrative court rule in his favor in March 2022 before the same Paris administrative court of appeal overturned the judgment in December 2022. But the Council of State overturned this ruling in February 2024 and ordered the Parisian appeal judges to review their copy.
