Mistakes meant Covid jab was given to clot victim Jack Last, report finds

Mr Last, who was described by his family as happy and healthy with a love of keeping fit and exploring, fell ill within a week of getting the vaccine.

He went to his local A&E at West Suffolk Hospital, in Bury St Edmunds, on 9 April complaining of severe headaches having phoned NHS 111.

His blood tests were abnormal and the consultant ordered a specialised scan to see if Mr Last had a vaccine-induced thrombosis (VITT) – an emerging condition at the time linked to the AZ vaccine.

However, the radiologist did not have the technical expertise to perform such a scan, the report found. Instead, a regular CT scan was performed which identified a blood clot in his brain. This wasn’t spotted by the radiologist, whose report said he had no brain abnormalities.

It wasn’t until the following day that the specialist scan was performed. It correctly identified the blood clot, linked to the AZ vaccine.

The report found the failure to accurately diagnose the problem delayed his treatment by 15 hours.

“Although it is not clear if this delay would have changed the outcome for Jack, this was still a missed opportunity to have started the medication regime as early as possible,” the report concluded.

Shortly afterwards, Mr Last was transferred to specialist care at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge. His treatment there, the report said, was “appropriate and of a high standard”. However, Jack died on 20 April, 2021. The 2022 inquest found he died from a blood clot as a direct result of his reaction to the AZ vaccine.

“If Jack had not been invited to have the AZ vaccine early,” the report said, “he would have been in a much later cohort (starting 8 June, 2021), by which time people under 30 were to be offered Pfizer or Moderna vaccines.”

Data from the Office for National Statistics shows, until July 2023, the deaths of 63 people in England “involved” the adverse effects of a Covid-19 vaccine, with 55 of those being “due” to the vaccine.

In a statement, Mr Last’s sister Jasmine described her brother as happy, healthy, witty and entertaining. Before he received the vaccine “he hadn’t had a single day sick from work. He was very rarely unwell. Then suddenly he was not fine”.

“It all happened so quickly, it still struggles to hit home at times that we are never going to see him again,” she added.

“Shortly after receiving his jab, the reports of Oxford AstraZeneca injections causing deaths were starting to gain attention, but by this time it was too late, Jack had already had the injection. We hope a lesson in accurate medical data keeping will be learnt from this.”

The report makes four recommendations, including ensuring that patients’ medical records are updated and accurate, and only include current, active telephone numbers.