Autopsy Protocols - "Something that should be looked at maybe?" - Pathologist

It’s almost two years since a pathologist was asked at an inquest if autopsy protocols to detect vaccine damage should be implemented.

The family involved were advised ‘to take up this matter’ themselves with the HPRA. This followed an adverse reaction report made to the HPRA by a medical professional who deemed it ‘life threatening.’

In light of yesterday’s verdict in the Roy Butler case, it’s worth taking a closer look at Coroner Aisling Gannon’s treatment of this case whereby the family suspected a vaccine played a role in their mother’s death.

The inquest into the death of Bridget Kerr (86) of Cooleeney, Co Longford took place in Dublin in November 2022. It was attended and reported on by this Substack.

The hearing was the first reported formal public inquiry into an Irish death, whereby the family suspected an adverse reaction to a covid vaccine.

Mrs Kerr, a mother of seven, lived a full and healthy life, managing to avoid the doctor’s surgery for a 35 year period up to 2020, her family told Dublin Coroner’s Court.

Bridget Kerr, Co Longford, died April 2021

Witnesses included Mrs Kerr’s GP, a consultant geriatrician, a consultant neurologist with expertise in stroke medicine and a neuropathologist from Beaumont Hospital. The doctors and hospital were legally represented, the family were not.

Mrs Kerr was administered the Pfizer vaccine on February 26th, 2021.

Two weeks after her jab, Mrs Kerr was suffering ongoing chills, headache and fever. She was growing more confused. “Her mobility had completely gone,” her daughter, Deirdre Greene said.

Another daughter, Breege Brady visited on Mother’s Day, March 14.

“She had no clue who I was. Her grandson was with me. She said, ‘who’s that little boy, did you bring him here?’” Ms Brady told the inquest.

The woman’s GP Padraig McGarry, a former president of the Irish Medical Organisation, agreed the elderly woman’s symptoms were ‘what would be part of the flagged covid vaccine side effects’ and said most people recovered from these effects.

On March 15 2021 the GP called to Mrs Kerr’s house.

“Was it unusual for you to conduct such a home visit?” Coroner Aisling Gannon asked.

“Yes, this was in the middle of the pandemic when we were asked not to go out to patients,” he replied.

That night, Mrs Kerr was taken by ambulance to the Midlands Regional Hospital in Mullingar, where she began suffering seizures two days later. She descended further into confusion, but doctors could not explain why. Under the care of Consultant Geriatrician Professor Clare Fallon, Mrs Kerr underwent CT brain and MRI scans and a lumbar puncture in a bid to identify the cause of the delirium.

“It can be triggered by many causes. Sometimes we don’t find a cause,” Prof Fallon told the inquest.

Asked could the vaccine have caused the delirium, Prof Fallan replied, “quite possibly.”

Visiting her mother in Mullingar, Breege Brady said Mrs Kerr was repeatedly described to her as a ‘mystery patient.’

“To go everyday and watch your mother deteriorate and that phrase was used almost daily. It was very upsetting,” she said.

On April 20 Mrs Kerr was transferred to the Mater Hospital in Dublin where she died a week later.

Life Threatening Adverse Reaction

The day of her death, April 27 2021, secretary to Professor Clare Fallon filled out a suspected adverse reaction report to be submitted to the HPRA.

The report includes a description of the suspected reaction, the vaccine batch number and date of administration. The report indicated the adverse reaction was ‘life threatening’.

At the direction of Dublin Coroner’s office, an autopsy was conducted at Beaumont Hospital.

Consultant Neurologist at the Mater, Dr Killian O’Rourke requested an external post mortem due to a concern about Creutzfeldt – Jakob disease (CJD), a rare and fatal condition affecting the brain.

“It’s a difficult diagnosis. If your patient is consistently getting worse... you should consider CJD,” Dr O’Rourke told the court.

Mrs Kerr’s granddaughter Erin Kevin asked if this doctor believed the vaccine could have caused the woman’s deterioration?

“I would be open to that possibility yes but I don’t know that. We have a patient who died of a progressive encephalopathy...it seems she had been reasonably well up to the vaccine and deteriorated from that point which is circumstantial and I think that needs to be taken into account.

“I think that is possible but I don’t know that, that’s about as far as I can take it,” Dr O’Rourke said.

The Coroner urged caution.

“We have to be careful, we cannot deal solely in respect of possibilities, we must deal in facts,” Ms Gannon said.

Autopsy

The brain was examined and samples were taken for examination under the microscope.

The retention of the brain required a process of consent from family.

“I fill out the form and then it goes to the social work department and the family are - or at least should be – notified,” he said.

The scaled back autopsy found no cause of death.

The family told the inquest they learned that no full post mortem had been carried out, through their undertaker.

“That is unacceptable. I would not like that to happen to another family,” Ms Brady said.

Dr Beausang said he was not sure why that happened.

Ms Brady said the undertaker informed the family that the body had been embalmed at Beaumont hospital.

“The funeral director said he found it extremely strange that she was already embalmed. Someone must have directed this?” she said.

“I wouldn’t know,” Dr Beausang replied. The embalming was not done at his direction.

Deirdre Greene asked if the pathologist was made aware her mother had suffered an adverse reaction to the vaccine and he replied he was not.

Asked why the body wasn’t retained until after CJD was ruled out, so that a full autopsy might be done, the pathologist said the body would have had to be repatriated to the Mater Hospital.

“The reason the postmortem was done in Beaumont was because CJD was a concern,” Dr Beausang said.

Ms Greene asked if there were policies and procedures in place for pathologists to test for suspected vaccine reactions. The pathologist replied no.

“Have pathologists been given procedures to follow and advice on what to look for?” Ms Greene asked.

When the pathologist replied this was not the case, Ms Greene asked if he thought it should be?

“My postmortem work is quite specific. I guess you are right, it is something that should be looked at maybe. But it’s not particularly relevant to my work on this case,” he said.

Returning an open verdict, the Coroner said ‘we must deal in facts that are definitive and determined.’

“In these circumstances we have to indicate that the medical cause of death of Ms Kerr is regrettably not determined, it is unascertained.”

“When the facts are unascertained, it follows that the verdict is open.

“I’m conscious it is not the position that any family wishes to find themselves in,” Ms Gannon said.

HPRA

Ms Greene raised the issue of the pathologist not being made aware of a report made to the HPRA of an adverse reaction deemed ‘life threatening.’

The family were advised ‘to take up this matter’ themselves with the HPRA.

“Now this matter is closed you can bring that matter forward to engage with the HPRA,” the Coroner replied.

There were no recommendations issued by the Coroner in respect of issues raised around the autopsy.

Contrast Coroner Aisling Gannon’s treatment of this inquest that concerned a reported ‘life threatening’ vaccine adverse reaction from a medical professional, with her treatment of swimmer Michael Laffan, who tested positive for covid 19 at autopsy, and consider the language used.

Report from Colm Keena, Irish Times: (Italics are mine)

The coroner said it was not clear the extent to which having the Covid virus in a person’s body affects their endurance when undergoing exercise. Mr Laffan had gone for a longer swim on the day in question, but it was not a long swim for a man with his level of fitness. The feature that was different was that Covid was in his system, she said. The virus may have affected his ability to swim the distance he did. Mr Laffan, she decided, had died from drowning with Covid also a causative factor.

Patrick E Walsh published an article illustrating the very different methods of finding causative links between covid and death and covid vaccines and death, in this article:

A TALE OF TWO CORONERS ….

Click here to buy the author a coffee.

Read the full article on the inquest into the death of Bridget Kerr below: