Irish footballer Roy Butler died of a brain haemorrhage five days after receiving the covid vaccine. His death is now being investigated by coroners at Cork Coroner’s Court.
The 23-year-old took the Janssen covid vaccine, manufactured by Johnson & Johnson, on 12 August 2021. Shortly afterwards, Butler began experiencing headaches, sweating and pain in his neck and jaw, which he reported to family and friends. On 16 August, he came home from the gym and told his family he wasn’t feeling well, and shortly afterwards his parents Angela and Martin found him convulsing in bed. He had also vomited on the floor and was unresponsive.
– I kept talking to him to get a response. He was lying on the bed in convulsions. Roy did not improve, he was just jerking, in convulsions from side to side, Mr Martin told the Irish Examiner.
An ambulance was called and the young man was found to be showing signs of a stroke, so another ambulance was called to the house. The 23-year-old was then taken to hospital where he died the following day.
“Healthy, sporty young man”
An inquest into Roy’s death opened at Cork Coroner’s Court last week, with the family struggling to get clearer answers as to why their young and seemingly healthy son died so suddenly. A medical report from the 23-year-old’s doctor said he was a “healthy, sporty young man” who suffered from mild asthma.
Wail Mohammad, a neurosurgeon at Cork University Hospital, says there was no anatomical cause for Roy’s brain haemorrhage and that it cannot be ruled out that the haemorrhage was caused by the covid vaccine. Gerald Wyse, a neuroradiologist at the same hospital, also notes that it is very unusual for such a young person to have a brain haemorrhage for which no cause can be found.
– I remember two patients over 20 years that we couldn’t find the cause for such a large bleed, he said during the investigation.
However, Louis Humberto Anaya-Velarde, medical safety officer for Janssen’s covid-19 vaccine, disagrees and says Butler’s death cannot be linked to the injections.
The family is convinced that it was the covid-19 vaccine that caused Roy’s death.
– Roy was a perfectly healthy young boy before the vaccine, says his mother Angela.
The coroner has announced that he will deliver his verdict in the coming weeks.
