Narrative Verdict Returned at Roy Butler Inquest
Coroner noted the 'quiet dignity and respect' of Butler family throughout proceedings
A narrative verdict setting out the factual circumstances surrounding Roy Butler’s death as been returned this afternoon.
In his verdict report, Coroner Philip Comyn noted the inquest hearing illustrated that not all adverse reactions to vaccines are reported. The Coroner noted that the first the vaccine manufacturer Johnson and Johnson heard of Roy’s death, was on social media and said the ‘lack of hard data concerning adverse effects to vaccines or other medications affects the ability of clinicians, medical experts and regulatory authorities in carrying out their duties.’
“The more data that is available the better able the appropriate authorities are to plan ahead and inform people of the risk, rare or otherwise in taking the vaccines and medications. 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 is around these issues, the less likely people are to take the vaccines,” Mr Comyn wrote in his report.
The Coroner issued three recommendations:
That the Department of Health and HPRA consider an information campaign to inform the public of the need to report adverse reactions to vaccines
To inform the public as to who they should report these adverse reactions to
To remind the HSE and all medical personnel and professional bodies of the need to ensure adverse reactions are properly noted and reported promptly to the relevant authorities.
In a statement, the family responded noting that Roy was ‘a young man in the prime of his life, with no health issues to indicate what would ultimately happen to him.’
“He was planning a trip to Dubai, but in order to travel, he needed proof of vaccination.”
“As a family we feel it was important that Roy’s death was the subject of a Coroner’s inquest. It allowed us the opportunity to put questions to executives of Johnson and Johnson to understand more about the vaccine and discover whether there were other adverse effects associated with it.”
“We are grateful for the support from friends and family throughout the three days the inquest ran, as well as the support from around the country.”
“We will take time now reflect on the verdict and the Coroner’s recommendations,” the family said in their statement.
Roy, a talented footballer from O’Reilly Road, Cork Road in Waterford suffered a catastrophic brain haemorrhage four days after he received the Janssen (Johnson and Johnson) ‘one shot’ vaccine.
“Roy was a perfectly healthy young boy before the vaccine,” his mother Angela Butler told Cork City Coroner’s court on the first day of evidence at the inquest into his death last month.
“He was perfect, he got this injection, then he wasn’t perfect.”
Mrs Butler told the court that Roy didn’t want to take a covid 19 vaccine, but did so in order to travel on a long delayed trip to Dubai with his friends.
Roy received the ‘one shot’ Janssen covid 19 vaccine on August 12 2021 at Mulligans Pharmacy in Waterford. The vaccine has since been withdrawn from the market for commercial reasons.
Roy himself reported feeling immediately unwell after taking the vaccine, documenting his symptoms in a series of texts to friends in the days leading up to his death. Roy attributed his symptoms – headache, grogginess, sweating, pain in his neck and his jaw, to the vaccine.
On the morning of August 16, 2021, after he finished his night shift in Bausch and Lomb, Roy returned to his parents’ house, where he suffered a catastrophic brain bleed later that day. He was rushed to hospital but died the next day at Cork University Hospital on August 17th 2021.
In her closing statements on the third day of evidence at the inquest, Barrister for the Butler family, Ciara Davin BL called on the Coroner to return a verdict of medical misadventure.
Ms Davin said ‘it would simply fly in the face of reason’ not to attribute the devastating brain bleed to the vaccine.
“There is simply no other reasonable explanation than that he suffered some sort of reaction to the vaccine and in those circumstances Coroner I am asking you to return a verdict of medical misadventure.”
“I am asking you to take everything into account, to look at the surrounding circumstances, what we do know, I am asking that you acknowledge the link,” Ms Davin said.
“Coroner these vaccines are new, they were rushed out…the research and science is still evolving,” Ms Davin said.
“This is a case in which medicine and science has abandoned us.”
In his closing statements, Barrister for Johnson and Johnson Mr John Lucey SC of Dublin based firm McCann Fitzgerald described the case as a ‘shocking tragedy’ but said there was ‘no evidence whatsoever’ that the vaccine caused Roy’s death and said the appropriate verdict was a narrative verdict.
“I accept there was administration of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine. I accept it is an event that occurred within a very short timeline of the vaccine, but there is no evidence whatsoever that the administration of the vaccine caused the death,” he said.
The final day of evidence heard from Assistance State Pathologist Dr Margaret Bolster, who could find no cause to explain the catastrophic brain hemorrhage that cost the young footballer his life.
Dr Bolster described Roy’s death as ‘baffling’ but said the investigations conducted at autopsy revealed ‘no direct link’ to the Janssen vaccine. However, Dr Bolster also noted that a link to the vaccine that Roy received four days before the brain hemorrhage could not be ruled out.
Dr Bolster gave the cause of death as a spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage resulting in raised intracranial pressure.
The pathologist, who said she had conducted some 20,000 autopsies over a thirty year period, said that the death of a young healthy man like Mr Butler from a spontaneous intracerebral bleed was ‘extremely rare.’
The inquest heard from Cork University Hospital Neuropathologist Dr Niamh Bermingham who conducted an examination of the brain at autopsy.
Dr Bermingham described the case as ‘unusual’ and said the investigations carried out found no cause or origin for the bleed.
The inquest heard that medical safety personnel with responsibility for the Janssen covid vaccine, were unable to say how many people died from the vaccine and that the vaccine manufacturer became aware of Roy Butler’s death via social media.
It was revealed that Janssen had a group of ‘between two and six people’ working on the safety monitoring aspect of the vaccine, which was administered to 660 million people worldwide.
Safety experts from the pharmaceutical company admitted that it was ‘impossible to know’ how many people died worldwide after receiving the vaccine because the safety data collected is based on a voluntary reporting system according to industry standards.
Initially, the pharmaceutical company told of just two reports of intracerebral hemorrhage within seven days of receiving the shot.
When the family’s legal team, (Callan Tansey) asked Johnson and Johnson to ‘widen the parameters’ of this safety search, the company returned a report that documented 59 other reported fatalities, due to intracerebral hemorrhage, up to ten days post vaccine administration.
On the second day of the hearing, it was heard that some 36 deaths were officially recorded in Janssen’s safety monitoring process ‘from an original pool of 400’ deaths due to intracerebral hemorrhage.
These reported deaths occurred up to 28 days of receiving the vaccine and excluded any deaths in people over fifty years of age.
The evidence of this pool of 400 deaths was not made known to the family’s barrister ahead of the inquest and only emerged at the inquest itself.
In their statement today, the family noted this evidence again, along with details of pathology evidence.
“Dr Bolster said that in 20,000 autopsies, she had never come across a situation where she could not ascertain the cause of death of such a young person and that a causal link to the vaccine cannot be established, or ruled out.”
On the balance of probabilities, the Coroner said he could not conclude Roy’s death was caused by the vaccine.
“On the facts of this case, causation must, in my mind be read as ‘Is there a factual link established on the balance of probabilities between this act, in this case the administration of JCovdn vaccine and the ultimate death of Roy Butler due to a spontaneous intracerebral heamorrhage of catastrophic proportions?’” Mr Comyn said.
The Coroner set out his reasons as to why he recorded a narrative verdict in his report as follows:
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Previously:
The verdict everyone expected. It’s going to take more to break the dam sadly. I feel for Roy’s family.
The doctors are "baffled" again. If they'd even find another word, it would help. Louise, if we had a few journalists like you in the mainstream these affronts to human reason would be exposed. If!