Inquest opens into death of Stonham Aspal engineer Jack Last, 27, who received Covid-19 AstraZeneca vaccine and suffered blood clot

An inquest has opened into the death of a young engineer who developed bleeding on the brain after receiving his Covid jab.

Two of the doctors who treated 27-year-old Jack Last in his final days told Suffolk Coroner's Court how he had been admitted to West Suffolk Hospital on April 9 last year.

He had received the AstraZeneca vaccine on March 30, and subsequently reported suffering from bouts of uncontrollable vomiting and a severe headache.

Mr Last, of Stonham Aspal, near Stowmarket, was described by consultant Dr William Petchey as being a previously "fit and well young man," with no family history of blood clots.

Dr Petchey said of Mr Last's case: "After receiving the vaccine, within a 48-hour window, he'd described general malaise and an ache in the injection site, which is quite common after vaccines."

Although Mr Last was soon diagnosed with cerebral thrombrosis – a blood clot in the area of the brain – Dr Petchey told the court he did not initially believe this was vaccine-related.

He acknowledged that, in the early stages of Mr Last's condition, it had been impossible to arrange a specialist CT scan that could have identified a vaccine link.

Dr Petchey said this was because the radiographer at West Suffolk Hospital had not been trained to carry out this type of scan.

However, he emphasised that, since Mr Last's death, the hospital has sought to address this discrepancy with recruitment and retraining of staff.

The consultant said of the situation in 2021: "It's hard to explain now what this was like. This was not a condition any of us had trained for, or which we had experience with."

He was subsequently moved to Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge for treatment, where he died on April 20.

Also present at today's inquest was Dr Martin Besser, the haematologist who took over Mr Last's case after he arrived at Addenbrooke's.

Dr Besser told the court that, at the time of Mr Last's death, there had been a great deal of uncertainty regarding the issue of vaccine-related blood clots.

The inquest continues.