Roy 'looked shook' after taking Janssen vaccine

Inquest into Roy Butler's death opens in Cork

Roy Butler looked ‘shook’ when he arrived home after receiving his covid 19 vaccine, an inquest into his death heard.

“He had a worried look on his face,” Roy’s father, Martin Butler, told the inquiry.

The inquest, scheduled to run for three days, got underway in Cork earlier today.

Roy received the ‘one shot’ Janssen Covid vaccine on August 12 2021 at Mulligans Pharmacy in Waterford.

“He looked a bit shook after coming back from the vaccine centre,” Mr Butler told Coroner Philip Comyn.

Over the next four days, Roy sent texts to six different individuals telling them he wasn’t feeling well since taking the shot.

“I’m f*cked after the vaccine,” Roy told his brother Aaron in a text conversation on August 15th. Aaron was concerned that Roy was ‘putting on a brave face’ so as not to cause his parents concern.

 “I’m not dying, I’m just not well,” Roy sent in another text to his brother.

In another text message, Roy said he was sweating and groggy, he had a headache, a sore neck and a sore jaw.

“The vaccine has me shook,” he texted a friend.

The inquest heard evidence from Roy’s mother Angela Butler that Roy took the vaccine because he wanted to go to Dubai.

“My son Roy went to get the vaccine on August 12 2021. He did not want to get it. He was a perfectly healthy 23 year old,” she told the Coroner. 

She said her son “was perfect, and then he got his injection, and then he wasn't.”

On August 16th, hours before he was rushed to hospital, Mrs Butler said she knew something was wrong with Roy.

“He went to the gym after 2pm and came back earlier than usual. I knew something was wrong with him. His face was white and he told me he was going to collapse in the gym and his heart was banging out of his chest.”

She told Roy to lie on the sofa and she put a damp towel on his head. She offered paracetamol but Roy refused it because ‘he never took tablets.’

“He said he would be alright in a minute,” Mrs Butler said.

Around 3.30pm she told Roy to go to bed and she went up ahead of him and closed the blinds and came back downstairs. About ten minutes later, he texted her: “Come up.”

“I went up and he was after getting sick. I called him but no response, I shouted to his father to come up,” she said.

“I went up, Roy’s eyes were closed even though he was getting sick. I kept talking to him, to get him to respond, Roy was getting sick as he lay on the bed and in convulsions. Angela rang 999,” Roy’s father, Martin Butler said.

The ambulance arrived at 5.34pm.

“The paramedics told me keep talking to him and I held his hand. Roy was unresponsive,” he said.

A second ambulance was called and Roy was transferred to University Hospital Waterford.

The family followed the ambulance. At the hospital, the family were told staff had ‘never seen anything like this before.’

“They said because of his age, fitness and previous good health they were going to transfer him to Cork,” Martin Butler said. The family received a Garda escort to Cork University Hospital.

On their way, they received a call to say Roy had only a 2% chance of survival.

“I asked them to do their best,” Martin Butler said.

A second call twenty minutes later informed them Roy’s chances had reduced to 1%.

“The following day, August 17 2021 the surgeon told us they did everything and nothing was working….We had a discussion about Roy taking the vaccine four days earlier and we asked him to make sure the truth was told. Aaron and I made the decision to switch off Roy’s machine. Five minutes later Roy had passed,” Martin Butler said.

“We stayed there and spent some time with him, then we went home,” Roy's older brother Aaron Butler said. “Everyone was brilliant, that is all I can remember. I still believe that Roy went downhill after the vaccination on August 12th as he felt unwell, he groggy and headaches. These are all of adverse effect from a vaccination. I just want the truth of what happened,” he said.

Answering questions from the Coroner, Aaron said Roy was always about football, training since the age of four, up to four nights a week from the age of 12.

He described his brother, seven years younger than him, as handsome and healthy, ‘the full package’ who didn’t just train but also coached football.

“He didn’t just take, he was giving back too,” Aaron said.

The inquest continued with statements read into evidence from the HPRA, the Department of Health and Roy’s GP, Dr Bernadette O’Leary.

Dr O’Leary described Roy as a healthy, sporty young man with a background of mild asthma. She had not seen him in person since 2017.

Consultant Neuro-radiologist at CUH Dr Gerald Wyse said tests showed that Roy Butler had a large haematoma in his brain which led to a catastrophic intercranial bleed. The hemorrhage was so large it had leaked into other areas of the brain, Dr Wyse said.

He said this was a very unusual presentation and he had dealt with only two other patients over a period of twenty years whereby a cause for such a hemorrhage could not be found.

The inquest heard from Neurosurgeon Mr Wail Mohammed who agreed with Counsel for the Butler family, Ciara Davin BL that Roy was in a ‘very poor condition’ by the time he arrived at CUH.

“He had a catastrophic brain hemorrhage. Unfortunately, the clinical tests showed the equivalent of brain stem death,” Mr Mohammed said.

He described the haemorrhage as ‘a massive bleed.’

He agreed with Ms Davin that the symptoms Roy was experiencing in the days leading up to his death were symptoms of an intracranial bleed.

“Yes it seems like it was manifesting… His symptoms appear to have been intensifying before his collapse,” Mr Mohammed said.

He described the brain hemorrhage as having taken place in the substance of the brain, in the left temple area and said surgery wasn’t carried out because the damage was ‘catastrophic and irreversible.’

“How do you know there wasn’t an ongoing bleed that reached a tipping point and ruptured?” Ms Davin asked.

“We don’t,” Mr Mohammed replied, but noted that in tests there was no older blood detected.

“We can age the blood on the scan. There wasn’t a mixed age blood on the scan to suggest there was a four day or a three day or a one day bleed,” he said.

“If the bleed was very small and then there was a sudden large bleed, could it be that it would have obliterated the smaller bleed?” Ms Davin asked.

Mr Mohommed replied that was possible.

Ms Davin raised the fact that tests showed Roy had a raised D-Dimer level.

“It’s usually a test to rule out Deep Vein Thrombosis,” Mr Mohammed replied.

Ms Davin noted that Mr Mohammed referred to the fact that Roy Butler had received a covid vaccine.

“It’s just a factor,” Mr Mohammed said.

Ms Davin asked if he was aware of the adverse events associated with the Janssen vaccine; coagulation disorders, thrombocytopenia, venous thromboembolism and capillary leak syndrome (CLS) – some with a fatal outcome.

“Janssen have provided information on 59 others that have suffered intracranial bleeds within ten days of receiving the vaccine,” Ms Davin said.

“Neither the post mortem nor a second opinion were able to find any cause for this bleed. They could not find the origin nor the cause of this bleed,” she said.

“His symptoms all began after the vaccine and he attributed them to it,” she said.

“Isn’t is obvious that Roy Butler suffered an intracranial bleed because of the vaccine?” Ms Davin asked.

John Lucey, SC, representing Johnson and Johnson objected to this question but the Coroner allowed it.

“I think this is outside my area of expertise,” Mr Mohammed said. “I wouldn’t be the person to answer that question.”

Ms Davin said that if there was no other cause for Roy’s hemorrhage found, and given the evidence of adverse effects from Janssen, ‘does that not tell you something?’

“It raises a possibility,” Mr Mohammed said.

“Can it (the vaccine) be out-ruled?” Ms Davin asked.

“I probably can’t disregard it completely,” Mr Mohammed said. The Butler family nodded in agreement.

The inquest continues tomorrow with evidence due from Janssen and again on Thursday with autopsy evidence from Assistant State Pathologist Dr Margaret Bolster.

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