A father died from an ultra-rare blood clot triggered by AstraZeneca’s Covid jab just ten days before he would have been recommended for an alternative.
An inquest has heard how Tom Dudley, 31, who had no underlying health conditions, got his first dose near his home in Sheffield on April 27 last year.
But the carpet salesman soon began to suffer headaches — a common side effect of the British-made vaccine that normally fades within days.
Two weeks after getting the jab, he was found unresponsive in the early hours at the home he shared with his partner Simone and their two daughters.
The Sheffield United fan was rushed to Northern General Hospital, but doctors said the bleed on his brain was ‘incurable’ and he died three days later.
Britain’s medical regulator recommended under-30s should get an alternative to the AstraZeneca vaccine in early April when it became clear that younger people were at greater risk of the clots — but it did not widen the advice to under-40s until May 7.
Mr Dudley’s GP said that given his age, lack of underlying conditions and the medical advice at the time, it was appropriate to give him AstraZeneca’s jab.
A medic who treated the father-of-two in hospital following the clot told the inquest it was ‘fair to say’ he would still be alive today if he was given a different vaccine.
Tom Dudley, 31, from Sheffield, died from a blood clot triggered by the AstraZeneca jab ten days before medics were told to offer an alternative to the age group. His mother Alison said her carpet salesman son was ‘very family orientated’ and ‘drove us mad most of the time with his very unfunny jokes’
Mr Dudley died at Northern General Hospital in Sheffield (pictured, one wing of the hospital)
A total of 78 Britons have died from blood clots linked to the AstraZeneca vaccine after being vaccinated with it — out of nearly 50million doses.
The vaccine can set off a chain reaction which leads to the body confusing its own blood platelets for fragments of virus.
For reasons the scientists are still probing, the body then mistakes these platelets as a threat and produces antibodies to fight them.
The combination of the platelets and the antibodies clumping together leads to the formation of dangerous blood clots.
AstraZeneca vaccine acts like a magnet for platelets triggering clots, scientists say
Scientists believe they have solved the mystery behind the extremely rare blood clots caused by the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine.
A team of international experts, involving researchers from AstraZeneca, say that in a very small number of cases — about one in 100,000 in the UK — the vaccine can set off a chain reaction which leads to the body confusing its own blood platelets for fragments of virus.
The British-made vaccine is thought to have saved about a million lives from Covid and was the backbone of the UK’s initial rollout earlier in the year, helping it to become the most vaccinated country in the West.
In a very small number of cases — about one in 100,000 in the UK — the vaccine can set off a chain reaction
The UK Government gave an emergency grant to a team of scientists led by Cardiff University to investigate the clotting phenomenon.
They found that the shell of the vector vaccine — the weakened cold virus used to teach cells how to neutralise Covid — sometimes acts like a magnet and attracts platelets, a protein found in the blood.
For reasons the scientists are still probing, the body then mistakes these platelets as a threat and produces antibodies to fight them. The combination of the platelets and the antibodies clumping together leads to the formation of dangerous blood clots.
They stress this is extremely rare, with only 437 cases in the UK recorded the so far out of about 50million doses of the vaccine, equivalent to less than one in 100,000. The side effect has been linked to 78 deaths in the UK.
Mr Dudley’s mother Alison and sister Hannah attended the inquest at Sheffield Town Hall.
Describing her son, Ms Dudley said: ‘He had lots of friends. He loved his two girls very much. He was very family orientated.
‘He drove us mad most of the time with his very unfunny jokes. He was just a wonderful son. I loved him.’
Mr Dudley’s partner said he was not given a leaflet outlining the potential side effects of the jab.
His GP Dr Alex Rawlings, who ran the centre where he got vaccinated, said he was ‘not aware’ of this.
He added, however, that the GP administering the jab would have talked through the adverse effects because it was ‘protocol’ before inoculations.
Dr Girogia Saccullo, from Northern General Hospital, said Mr Dudley had suffered a ‘very, very intensive’ bleed on his brain.
She said surgery and treatment was undertaken at the hospital, but that it ‘did not have the expected benefits’.
Dr Saccullo said that similar adverse effects had not been seen in those who had other vaccines.
Asked if anything could be done differently, she said: ‘I don’t think so I’m afraid.
‘I think from a medical perspective everything has been done to protocol with the vaccine and according to protocols later to try and save his life.’
Coroner Tanyka Rawden recorded the cause of death as a bleed on the brain, caused by the vaccine.
She said: ‘At the time this was not a known and recognised complication of this vaccine.
‘It seems to me that the guidelines have been changed. They were changed very, very quickly after Tom had his vaccination.’
The British-made vaccine is thought to have saved about a million lives from Covid and was the backbone of the UK’s initial rollout in early 2021, helping it to become the most vaccinated country in the West.
But concerns about clots saw its restriction in under-40s in the UK in spring and led Pfizer and Moderna’s vaccines being favoured for young adults and as boosters.
It was outright banned in many European countries and the US decided not to purchase a single dose.
The first inquest into a death linked to the AstraZeneca jab was concluded in September last year.
Mother-of-two Alpa Tailor, 35, from London, suffered a stroke a week after getting the jab with symptoms including slurred speech and a facial droop. She died two weeks later.
In another case mother-of-two Michelle Barlow, from Wigan, died from blood clots 16 days after getting her first dose of the vaccine. Doctors initially mis-diagnosed her symptoms as gastroenteritis.
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