Coroner has 'no confirmation' Irish man died of measles

Postmortem results are required for death widely reported as 'due to measles'

A Coroner has confirmed no autopsy report exists listing measles as a cause of death in relation to a man reported to have died from the virus. Westmeath Coroner Raymond Mahon said only a full post-mortem can conclude whether the man died of measles and that could take up to nine months.

“The postmortem is the only thing that will give us a cause of death,” Mr Mahon said.

The reported death of a 48 year old man at Regional Hospital Mullingar earlier this month has been the subject of much media scrutiny, prompting multiple discussions over vaccination rates.

Mr Mahon confirmed measles was not the official cause of death at this time and said that will not change until a full pathologist’s report becomes available. The Coroner pointed out that once the autopsy results are available, ‘it may say death was due to something else.’

“That (measles) is not the official cause of death at this time because we haven’t got the pathologist’s report. So maybe when that comes, it may say death was due to something else and measles was a contributory factor. It’s not officially recorded as a death from measles insofar as death registration,” Mr Mahon said.

The Tullamore based Coroner confirmed he had received a report of a death and there had been a diagnosis of measles prior to death. Whether the man died from complications arising from measles, or due to other issues affecting his ability to recover, is not known at this stage.

“I don’t have any pathologist’s report yet,” Mr Mahon said.

“I think there was a diagnosis probably pre-mortem that this gentleman had measles but I don’t know, I am presuming that.”

“It’s my understanding that having contracted measles and having whatever swabs or scans taken, they knew he had measles. Now he did subsequently die, the measles may have affected something else I don’t know, we don’t know until post-mortem,” he said.

“I’m sure there were other complicating factors. I presume measles can lead to other things, I am not a doctor,” the Coroner added.

“A postmortem is taking eight to nine months generally, whether this one will be a bit faster or not I don’t know. The toxicology reports are taking about four or five months at the moment so that is a large factor to the delay. The postmortem is the only thing that will give us a cause of death,” Mr Mahon said.

The Department of Health used similar questionable methods to count ‘covid deaths’ ahead of the roll out of its covid 19 vaccine programme. This practice was called out by Coroner Pat O’Connor in April 2021.

Today, the Irish Independent reports that Tony Holohan, who lead Ireland’s response to covid 19, is in line to take on a role would see him work on cancer prevention and treatment with a salary that ranges from €214,000 to over a quarter of a million euros a year. These figures represent a significant increase on the former CMO’s salary, which was €187,000 in 2021.

The Coroner for Westmeath agreed that the counting of ‘covid deaths’ was inaccurate.

“Yes, whether that (covid) caused the death, or the person was covid positive and yes sometimes other factors were not given the same prominence. I imagine it’s the same thing here,” Mr Mahon said.

Contracting measles can lead to other conditions, such as pneumonia, meningitis or sepsis but until a post-mortem report is furnished, the official cause of death in this case remains unclear.

*Story filed to all main news outlets in Ireland

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