'No evidence' of link between Covid jab and woman’s death in Derby
Mohinder Kaur Mahal suffered a stroke days after she received the Pfizer Covid vaccination
There is no evidence to suggest an elderly woman’s death was caused by a Covid-19 booster jab she was given days earlier, a coroner has concluded.
Mohinder Kaur Mahal, 85, suffered a stroke before she died at Royal Derby Hospital on October 31 2022, 12 days after she received the Pfizer Covid vaccination and a flu jab.
After her death, Mrs Mahal’s family raised concerns about a possible link between the Covid jab and her stroke.
Her son, Baldev Mahal, who was her carer, told her inquest at Leicester Coroner’s Court on Monday that he was “convinced” there was a trigger for his mother’s stroke.
Mr Mahal told senior coroner Professor Catherine Mason: “Something’s jolted my mum’s system to send her down that road.”
But Dr James Scott, a stroke consultant at Royal Derby Hospital, told the coroner he does not think the vaccination played a part in Mrs Mahal’s stroke, adding she “did not have a fair fight on her hands” because of existing medical conditions.
On Thursday, the coroner concluded that Mrs Mahal died of natural causes.
Prof Mason noted that Mrs Mahal’s underlying health conditions, including type 2 diabetes, heart failure and ischaemic heart disease, put her at a “significant risk of stroke”.
The inquest heard that Mrs Mahal previously had a stroke in January 2021.
Prof Mason wrote in the record of inquest: “On the balance of probabilities, the stroke occurred as a consequence of these established risk factors, and in particular the presence of atrial fibrillation and left atrial thrombus formation.
“Although Mrs Mahal received a Covid-19 vaccination in the days prior to the onset of her stroke, I find that there is no evidence to establish that the vaccination caused or contributed to her death.
“The temporal association between vaccination and the onset of symptoms does not, in this case, establish a causal relationship when considered in the context of her significant underlying comorbidities.”
The inquest heard that Mrs Mahal, who was described as “frightened of getting Covid” but banged her pans together for the NHS so hard they broke, said she did not want the vaccine on a number of occasions before changing her mind.
In the hours after having the booster vaccine, Mr Mahal said his mother had blurred vision, pain and confusion, before he found her partly dressed and “agitated” on October 26 when she was taken to hospital.
The inquest heard that proceedings were moved to Leicester from Derby because Mr Mahal alleged the previous coroner was “biased”, which she has denied.