DEATH FALL BLAMED ON FLU JAB

Inquest hears child care worker Katie (23) developed narcolepsy after swine flu vaccination

A “shy and anxious” woman who developed narcolepsy after been given a vaccine for swine flu fell from a multi-story car park a day after seeing a psychologist, an inquest heard.

Katie Clack, 23, suffered fatal injuries after falling from a Queens gate shopping centre car park in Peterborough, on September 23,2014, South Lincolnshire coroners’ court heard at inquest which opened yesterday.

In the preceding 18 months she had suffered from psychosis and clinical depression which was exacerbated after she developed narcolepsy.

Miss Clack, a nursery nurse from Peterborough, contracted the condition - which makes sufferers fall asleep or sleepy - after she received the Pandemrix jab aged 18 as part of a national vaccination scheme during the 2009-10 swine flu pandemic.

When she was diagnosed a year later she was sleeping up to 19 hours a day and had fallen into chronic depression with “no quality of life” by the time she died. She left her family a note urging them to pursue her legal case against GlaxoSmithKline, the firm which manufactured the drug.

The depression led her to gain around eight stones in weight, caused her to have problems at work and stop washing herself.

Miss Clack is believed to be one of around 90 people in the country who developed the condition after been given the vaccine.

The psychosis led her to hear voices, including a woman who, the inquest heard, told her to kill herself.

Dr Gemma Hendry is a clinical psychologist who saw Miss Clack at 11am the day be- fore she died. Shes aid: “There was no suspicions raised with me. She had plans for later in that week. At no point did she express suicidal intentions or did she become stressed in the last session.”

Miss Clack had previously visited the car park on two occasions but was persuaded to leave after texting her sister, the court heard.

The court heard that Miss Clack had been sectioned in April, 2013 after developing paranoid psycho tic delusions.

She was diagnosed with schizophrenia during her four week stay at the hospital. Her condition improved and she was released on April 30 to return to her parents’ house.

Within days she deteriorated and voluntarily returned to the hospital for treatment.

She was discharged on June 3 and then supported by the Community Crisis Team.

Miss Clack’s family is represented by law firm Hodge Jones & Allen. Before the start of the inquest they said: “The Clack family have waited a long time for this inquest and hope that it will uncover the circumstances surrounding Katie’s death, considering in particular whether more could have been done to intervene and to help her and whether opportunities were missed that may have ultimately prevented her death.”

The inquest continues.

Katie Clack