Mohinder Kaur Mahal died after a stroke at Royal Derby Hospital 12 days after she received her vaccination for coronavirus
A Derby grandmother who used to bang her pans in appreciation for the NHS has died just days after getting her Covid-19 booster vaccine.
Mohinder Kaur Mahal, 85, struggled to speak a week after having the vaccine and a flu jab in Derby before she had to be taken to hospital. Twelve days after getting vaccinated, the widow died after a stroke at Royal Derby Hospital on October 31, 2022, an inquest into her death heard on Monday, June 22.
The woman’s family later expressed their concerns about a possible link between the Covid jab and her stroke. Baldev Mahal, Mrs Mahal’s son, who was her principal carer, told the inquest at Leicester Coroner’s Court on Monday: “When I look back now, I’m convinced, in my own opinion, there’s some kind of a trigger.
“Something’s jolted my mum’s system to send her down that road. I respectfully say to anyone, it’s not trying to put a downer on the vaccine… it’s what happened in my mum’s circumstances.”
The inquest heard Mrs Mahal was “frightened of getting Covid” and refused the vaccine a number of times before she eventually changed her mind. Mr Mahal told the inquest that he and his mother were not told during the appointment that she was being given a booster jab.
The son added they were given no leaflet about the Covid or flu vaccines and were told if she experienced any pain to take paracetamol. He said: “When you think of it from a clinical point of view, informed consent was not gained.
“For my mum’s academic level, it could have been put simply that this one isn’t for you… some kind of explanation to go along with it.”
Senior coroner Professor Catherine Mason asked: “At any point did your mum say ‘I don’t want a vaccine’?” Mr Mahal replied: “Those words weren’t spoken.”
He told the inquest that his mother had blurred vision, pain and confusion after the jab was administered. He said: “Certainly the same day she suffered quite a big headache, that afternoon, and decided to sleep it off.
“When it started being weakness in the legs and certainly blurred vision I just thought she’s probably got a migraine.” On October 26, Mr Mahal found his mother partly dressed on the bed.
He said: “Her jaw had locked. She could not speak, was murmuring. I could see from her eye movement she was very agitated.” Mr Mahal told the ambulance workers who came to her home that his mother had recently had two vaccinations.
She was taken to hospital, where she later died. Mr Mahal then spoke to a doctor at his mother’s GP surgery on November 23.
He said: “I told him my mum had died. He checked mum’s records and he said she should not have had that one (vaccination).” Mr Mahal said he then referred his mother’s death to the coroner.
Mr Mahal added: “It’s not about the vaccine. It’s about how it’s been administered to somebody like my mum with all these health conditions.” The inquest heard Mrs Mahal had diabetes and previously had a stroke in January 2021.
Dr James Scott, a stroke consultant at Royal Derby Hospital, told the coroner he does not think the vaccination played a part in Mrs Mahal’s stroke.
He said: “She had heart failure, she had an injury to the brain, to the other side, from her previous stroke. So she did not have a fair fight on her hands.”
In a pen portrait, one of Mrs Mahal’s other children Jaspal said: “My mum was frightened of the pandemic, Covid-19. She was isolated from her friends and family. This did have a massive impact on her. She would say she’s scared but we must bang our pans for all the doctors and nurses.
“She banged them so hard she broke the pans. I said ‘you cannot do it every day mum, it’s only Thursdays’.” One of Mrs Mahal’s other sons Jasvinder said in a written statement “family was everything” to her.
The inquest heard that proceedings were moved to Leicester from Derby because Baldev Mahal alleged the previous coroner was “biased”, which she has denied. The inquest continues.