Coroner recommends recording of all adverse reactions to Covid vaccines at inquest into Waterford man’s death

The Department of Health should consider launching a public information campaign to get people to report adverse reactions to vaccines, a coroner has urged after he returned a narrative verdict in the death of a young man who died days after getting a Covid vaccine.
Cork City coroner Philip Comyn made the recommendation in the case of Roy Butler (23), from O’Reilly Road, Cork Road, Waterford. He died at Cork University Hospital (CUH) on August 17th, 2021, from a brain haemorrhage, five days after receiving the Janssen Covid-19 vaccine.
In his narrative verdict, Mr Comyn noted Mr Butler did not fit into any of the groups for which a Covid-19 vaccine was particularly recommended. He had received the vaccine as he wished to go to Dubai with his friends, and getting a Covid vaccination was required to enter the country.
He complained of feeling unwell after getting the vaccine on August 12th, 2021. Four days later his mother Angela found him upstairs in his room vomiting, and he soon began to suffer convulsions and lapsed into unconsciousness.
He was rushed by ambulance to University Hospital Waterford before being taken to CUH, where he was put on a life support machine. He was pronounced dead less than 24 hours later.
Mr Comyn said in his verdict that the cause of Mr Butler’s death was spontaneous intracerebral haemorrhage, before he noted that Johnson & Johnson, manufacturers of the Janssen vaccine, first heard of Mr Butler’s death from social media.
Mr Comyn said the lack of hard data on adverse reactions to vaccines affects the ability of doctors, medical experts and regulatory authorities to carry out their duties. Having such data would assist the appropriate authorities to plan ahead and inform people of any risk.
“The more clarity there is on these issues, the more likely people are to avail of vaccines and other medications. The less clarity or the more uncertainty there are about these issues, the less likely people are to take vaccines,” he said.
Mr Comyn recommended that Department of Health, the Health Products Regulatory Authority and other appropriate bodies consider whether an information campaign should be undertaken, firstly to inform the general public of the need to report adverse reactions to vaccines.
He also recommended that the HSE and all medical personnel and professional bodies should be reminded of the need to ensure all adverse reactions are property noted and reported to the relevant authorities.
The inquest heard from Assistant State Pathologist Dr Margaret Bolster, who testified that Mr Butler died from a spontaneous intra cerebral haemorrhage five days after receiving the Janssen vaccine, but she could not explain what had caused the haemorrhage.
Dr Bolster said that the death of a young healthy man like Mr Butler from such ableed was extremely rare. She had only encountered it once or twice before in performing 20,000 autopsies over 30 years, and in both those cases the person was elderly.
During the inquest, Mr Comyn heard that 59 people suffered adverse reactions similar to Mr Butler. Janssen was unable to say how many deaths globally have been linked to the 660 million doses of the vaccine that were distributed worldwide before it was withdrawn for commercial reasons.
Addressing the issue of causation, Mr Comyn said that most of the medical evidence on the link between Mr Butler’s death and the receipt of the vaccine was “equivocal” and was probably best summed up by Dr Bolster’s evidence that she could neither rule it in nor rule it out.
Dr Logesvaran Yogendran, vice-president of global Strategy and risk management at Janssen Research and Development, confirmed Janssen had received reports on adverse reactions on those who had received their Covid-19 vaccine, but they did not have data on the number who had died globally.
Mr Butler’s father, Martin, said the family were still considering the verdict and needed time to assess it in detail and discuss it among themselves before deciding as a family on any comment they might make.