A man left permanently disabled after a one-in-a-million bad reaction to a whooping cough vaccination is preparing to face off against the WA Government to claim millions of dollars in medical negligence compensation.

Ben Hammond, his wife Tanya and their five children have been left emotionally and financially crippled since the 2012 injection.

Experts say the injection led to Mr Hammond contracting acute disseminated encephalomyelitis, an autoimmune disease causing irreversible spinal cord damage.

The rare reaction left Mr Hammond without any feeling from the waist down, with difficulty walking and memory loss — a reaction traced by an immunology expert to the vaccine given weeks earlier at King Edward Memorial Hospital so he could visit his prematurely born son.

After failing in several appeals for an ex gratia payment from the Government, the Hammonds are pursuing a negligence claim against the WA health minister — litigation they believe could be a watershed for vaccine injury law in Australia.

The couple say that what they really want is a chance to live a normal life.

Camera Icon Ben and Tanya Hammond. Credit: supplied

“Before this we lived a normal, peaceful life — now it is non-stop roller-coaster,” Mr Hammond said.

“This is not about millions of dollars or a mansion. This is about allowing us to live a normal life with our children.”

The family are being supported in their battle by former Federal MP Alannah MacTiernan, who has called on Attorney-General Michael Mischin to intervene and grant the family an ex gratia payment.

The Hammonds have also been backed to the tune of $10,000 by public donations after launching a GoFundMe page to appeal for financial help to compile expert reports to be used in court.

Ms MacTiernan said any negligence payout would help pay for Mr Hammond’s long-term medical treatment, which includes hundreds of dollars a month in supplies, as well as compensating the family for the loss of his $280,000-a-year salary earned as a mine supervisor.

She is also calling for a national compensation scheme for those who suffer a rare adverse effect from a vaccination.

A 2010 World Health Organisation bulletin estimated that 19 countries have such a scheme.

“It is very sad that the family have had to go down this legal route because this is a case where the Government and the family should have been able to get together and work out a solution,” Ms MacTiernan said.

Camera Icon Ben Hammond, with son James, in hospital after a reaction to the vaccine. Credit: Vaccine Injuries Awareness/Tanya Hammond

Kalgoorlie State MP Wendy Duncan has raised the case with Premier Colin Barnett and former prime minister Tony Abbott, who wrote to the family expressing “sympathy for the rare adverse event that Mr Ben Hammond suffered following immunisation”.

“Sympathy is actually not going to help here,” Ms Duncan said in response. “This young family is in dire straits.”

The Kalgoorlie family are also fighting on another legal front — their home was raided by police in January last year on suspicions that methamphetamine was being manufactured at the property.

No evidence of that drug was found but police allege cannabis material and a smoking implement were discovered.

The family say it was being used by Mr Hammond to ease his muscle spasms and other physical ailments.

While she was still a Federal MP, Ms MacTiernan revealed in Parliament that she had asked WA Police Commissioner Karl O’Callaghan for an independent investigation of police behaviour during the raid.

“This family are very simply trying to get some justice and some reasonable compensation for the very severe trauma and loss that they have suffered — not because anyone is at fault but because they participated in the vaccination program that was asked of them,” she said.

Mr Hammond has pleaded not guilty to the cannabis charges.

A pre-trial conference for the negligence claim will be held later this year.