A PATHOLOGIST who carried out a post-mortem on a 23-year-old man who died from a catastrophic brain bleed five days after receiving a Covid vaccine has described the case as “baffling and unusual”.
Waterford native Roy Butler died at Cork University Hospital (CUH) on August 17, 2021, five days after receiving a Covid-19 jab in a pharmacy.
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He was rushed to University Hospital Waterford on August 16, 2021 after he became extremely ill at home, and shortly afterwards was transferred to CUH
Ciara Davin, BL for the Butler family, said that Roy’s “last communication on earth” involved him calling his mother for help at the family home on the Cork Road.
He experienced jerking and convulsions shortly before he was hospitalised.
He had sent texts to his friends and his brother over the previous few days saying that was feeling sick after getting the Johnson and Johnson jab.
Ms Davin said in her closing submission at the inquest at Cork Coroner’s Court that Roy even told one of his friends via text that he was “dying” after the jab.
She said: “Poignantly he was effectively documenting his own demise in his texts to friends. Little did he know that he was in fact dying when he said ‘dying’ in a text to a friend.”
Ms Davin said in Roy’s “honest and innocent” texts he “left all the evidence” that was needed to link his death to his receipt of the Covid-19 vaccine.
Roy, of O’Reilly Road in Waterford, had complained of headaches, grogginess, and neck and jaw soreness.
Assistant State Pathologist Dr Margaret Bolster carried out a post-mortem on Roy’s body.
She told the inquest that the cause of death was a spontaneous and unexplained intracranial haemorrhage.
‘BAFFLING’
She described the case as “baffling” and “extremely rare”.
Dr Bolster said that she had carried out 20,000 post-mortems over thirty years and indicated that she had never come across a case of a young person dying in this manner where an explanation couldn’t be furnished.
She said that she couldn’t make a causal link with the vaccine arising out of the paucity of scientific literature.
Dr Bolster said that a link between the vaccine and Roy’s death couldn’t be established or ruled out.
‘CANNOT RULE IT OUT’
She said: “I certainly cannot rule it out but I would need to know a lot more about the cases.
“It is extremely rare. It (linking it to data) would have to be based on sound scientific evidence. I cannot say anymore than I cannot rule it in or out and the correct procedure was to contact the National Drugs Advisory board (which she did) and they correlate all this data.
“You would have to correlate how many of those cases had no underlying abnormality.”
Meanwhile, neuropathologist at CUH, Dr Niamh Bermingham, who alongside an other colleague carried out an examination of Roy’ssaid that it was an “unusual case”.
She stated that she couldn’t recall another case of an “unexplained haemorrhage in a young person”.
No malformations
Dr Bermingham said that they couldn’t find the origin of the bleed.
She added that there was no genetic component found which could explain the death and no malformations were detected in the brain.
Ms Davin thanked Dr Bermingham for her comprehensive and helpful evidence.
However, she said the family “were at a loss” as no explanation has been furnished for the death of their loved one.
In her closing submission, Ms Davin said Roy’s death was caused by the vaccine.
She said that the most appropriate verdict is in the case was one of misadventure.
‘SHOCKING TRAGEDY’
Ms Davin insisted that Roy’s death arose because of an “evolving intra cerebral crisis” and that the footballer was a “clean living” man who trained several times a week.
She said: “He had no underlying issues and no past history of medical significance.”
Ms Davin said that she is aware of other cases of people who suffered a “intra cranial haemorrhage” after they took the jab.
John Lucey, SC for Johnson and Johnson, said Roy’s death was a “shocking tragedy”.
However, he emphasised that the facts were that there was no medical evidence to determine any link between the vaccine and his death.
Poignantly he was effectively documenting his own demise in his texts to friends. Little did he know that he was in fact dying when he said ‘dying’ in a text to a friend.”
Ciara Davin
He stressed that the range of verdicts in the case should not go beyond a narrative verdict or open verdict.
He added that a “narrative verdict’ was the only appropriate verdict in the case.
Coroner Philip Comyn said that the testimony over the last three days was “complicated and moving”.
VERDICT TO COME
Mr Comyn will email the verdict to the relevant parties within the next fortnight.
He extended his heartfelt condolences to the Butler family following their “tragic loss” in difficult and unexpected circumstances.
He said that Roy was a “healthy young man with his whole future ahead of him”.
Mr Comyn also thanked the Butler family for the manner in which they had conducted themselves during the inquest.
FAMILY WORDS
He also thanked representatives of Johnson and Johnson for travelling from the US for the inquest.
Speaking outside the court Roy’s brother Aaron Butler thanked all the people who had supported them for the last two years.
He also expressed gratitude for the work of Ciara Davin and her team.
Aaron added that his brother was “the total package” and a “caring and positive” young man loved by all.
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