A Victorian coroner is investigating whether a young woman’s death from heart inflammation after receiving her third Covid-19 shot was caused by the Moderna vaccine.
Moderna’s lawyers appeared at Melbourne Coroner’s Court on Wednesday for a hearing into the death of 21-year-old Natalie Boyce.
The court was told he received his third dose of the Covid vaccine on February 18, 2022, which was the Moderna mRNA vaccine.
About a week later, he went to see a GP after vomiting for five days, suffering pain and at one point fainting.
In the following weeks, Boyce went to the hospital and a medical facility because his symptoms of vomiting, pain and fainting persisted.
On March 5, she went to Mulgrave Private Hospital, after suffering chest pain and difficulty breathing, and was transferred to The Alfred where she was diagnosed with fulminant myocarditis.
Natalie Boyce died in March 2022. A coroner is investigating whether her death was related to the Moderna Covid vaccine.
The 21-year-old’s condition worsened after she underwent surgery to remove a clot and then, during an MRI, suffered a heart attack.
She could not be revived and was pronounced dead on March 27.
A forensic pathologist performed an autopsy on Ms. Boyce and found that she died from an acute myocarditis infarction.
The autopsy concluded that “given the temporal proximity due to the vaccine, a vaccine-related myocarditis cannot be excluded.”
But the report also says that this cannot be diagnosed post-mortem.
In February of this year, Moderna hired its own cardiologist to provide an expert opinion to the court.
Co-counsel Jessika Syrjanen told the court that the Moderna cardiologist’s report differed on the cause of Ms Boyce’s death and the medical treatment in the lead-up, but did not detail how.
“Moderna submitted in a letter to the court that ‘the conclusion of the autopsy report: that no definitive cause for Ms. Boyce’s myocarditis can be identified,'” he told the court.
“Today I ask Moderna’s legal representatives to clarify Moderna’s current position and whether that has changed.”
Moderna’s attorney, Jesse Rudd, said he could not immediately clarify the company’s position.
“It’s the first time I’ve heard of it,” he responded, asking for time to seek advice.
All parties were given eight weeks to read Moderna’s report and consider their positions.
The case will return on July 17 to be mentioned before coroner Catherine Fitzgerald.
Boyce’s mother, Deborah Hamilton, shared her anguish at a Senate committee hearing on a bill seeking to protect unvaccinated workers last May.
She said strict rules in Victoria around Covid meant she couldn’t be with her daughter in hospital when she needed her most.
‘What was the point of getting vaccinated when I was still prohibited from keeping my son in the hospital?’ said Mrs. Hamilton.
“I still have texts on my phone from her begging me to come and be with her… this still haunts me today and probably will for the rest of my life.”