We’ll still have AstraZeneca, say family of solicitor killed by blood clot
THE sister it of f a solicitor li it who died of a blood clot 18 days after having the AstraZeneca vaccine insisted yesterday that she and other relatives still had faith in the jab. Dr Alison Astles, a pharmacist and academic, said there was no such thing as a 100 per cent safe medicine, and her brother, Neil, 59, had been ‘extraordinarily unlucky’ to die from the rare side-effect. As a medical professional, Dr Astles said she had a ‘moral duty’ to urge others to have the vaccine. She decided to speak out after watching Professor Jonathan Van-Tam, deputy chief medical officer for England, explain on TV how the benefits of the jab outweighed the risks. She added: ‘On a personal level I am completely furious around this situation because it’s happened to me and my family. ‘ I watched Professor Van-Tam showing the graphic of risks and benefits of the Covid jab... and – with the grief we have for my brother fresh in our brains – I still strongly believe that people should go and have their vaccine. What happened to my brother was extraordinarily rare, but we will save more lives if people have the vaccine. I would hate this to put anybody off.’
Dr Astles, who is the subject leader for pharmacy at Huddersfield University, said of her brother’s death: ‘We watched them turn his ventilator off and he died in front of us.
‘Even with that experience I still strongly believe that the best thing for the population as a whole and the way we will save the most lives is if everybody has their vaccine.
‘That’s strongly the message I want to get across.’
Dr Astles, 54, who has had her first Pfizer jab, said: ‘Other people in the family have had the AstraZeneca one and my recommendation would be to have the second dose. ‘Neil... had no reservations.’ Mr Astles, who worked for Warrington Borough Council, had his first jab on March 17. But ten days later he developed a persistent headache and began to feel sick.
A chemist gave him drugs for the nausea last Friday, but that evening he started losing his sight and was in so much pain his brother, Peter, 63, took him to Warrington General Hospital. A scan showed that Mr Astles, who was healthy, had a clot in his brain.
He was transferred to the Royal Liverpool University Hospital, but could not be saved. Carole, his wife of 28 years, his siblings and mother, Lilian, 87, were by his side when he died on Easter Sunday.
Dr Astles, who urged pharmacists to be aware of sideeffects, said the consultant who treated her brother was 99.9 per cent sure he died as a result of having the vaccine.
She added. ‘I feel very angry – but I feel angry against fate. There is no one to blame.’
There have been 79 reports in the UK of clots accompanied by a telling low bloodplatelet count – all in people who had their first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine. Nineteen died –14 of whom developed cerebral venous sinus thrombosis – the clot thought to have killed Mr Astles.
One in every 250,000 people vaccinated is thought to be at risk of developing this clot.
‘I’d hate this to put anyone off’