Doctors who treated an elderly Longford woman who died following an unexplained series of seizures last year told an inquest it was possible that her death was linked to an adverse reaction to a Covid-19 vaccine.
An inquest at Dublin District Coroner's Court heard a post-mortem exam on the body of Ms Bridget Kerr, a mother of seven from Cooleeney, Dublin Road, Longford, was inconclusive in establishing the cause of her death.
Evidence was heard that several other possible explanations including stroke, brain tumour and CJD had been ruled out.
Ms Kerr died at the Mater Misericordiae Hospital in Dublin on April 27, 2021, after being transferred there from the Midlands Regional Hospital in Mullingar after suffering a number of seizures.
Her family claim their mother only became unwell after receiving the Covid vaccine from her local GP two months earlier.
Ms Kerr's family doctor, Padraig McGarry, told the inquest that he had advised Ms Kerr to be given the Pfizer vaccine for Covid-19 in 2021.
Dr McGarry, a former president of the Irish Medical Organisation, said he had explained what the vaccine involved to the patient and she had given her consent verbally, despite reservations by some of her relatives which he acknowledged were "totally legitimate."
He accepted that headaches and chills subsequently experienced by Ms Kerr after she was administered the vaccine on February 26, 2021 were known side-effects.
The inquest heard Ms Kerr, who had previously been well despite stopping her medication, was unable to walk and had to use a wheelchair within weeks of getting the vaccine.
Ms Kerr's daughter, Deirdre Greene, said her mother had been doing well after recovering from illness the previous year up to the point of receiving the vaccine.
A consultant geriatrician at the Midlands Regional Hospital in Mullingar, Clare Fallon, admitted it was possible that an adverse reaction to the vaccine had caused the delirium which the patient suffered.
In response to questions from Ms Kerr's daughters, a consultant neurologist at the Mater, Killian O'Rourke, who also treated the deceased, said he was open to the possibility that the Covid vaccine had caused her death.
He said one had to take into account that the vaccine could have caused her illness "in the absence of all other explanations."
Returning an open verdict, Ms Gannon remarked that it was a position "that no family wants to find themselves in."
