Cancer jab teen 'had hidden tumour'

An inquest found that Natalie Morton's death was not related to the cervical cancer vaccine
12 April 2012

A teenager who collapsed shortly after being given a cervical cancer jab died from an undiagnosed tumour in her heart, a coroner has ruled.

Deputy coroner for Coventry, Louise Hunt, found that the death of 14-year-old Natalie Morton was not linked to a HPV vaccine administered shortly before her death last September.

The inquest at Coventry Magistrates' Court heard that Natalie's underlying condition was so rare that a pathologist had never come across it before in the body of a child.

Recording a verdict of natural causes, Mrs Hunt said: "I am satisfied that there was no connection between the HPV vaccine and Natalie's death.

"Natalie had a previously unrecognised, extensive tumour of the heart which ultimately caused her death. It was a death that could have happened at any time."

Natalie, of Stoke, Coventry, died on September 28 last year after being taken ill at the city's Blue Coat Church of England School, little more than an hour after receiving the vaccine.

Natalie's death led to a precautionary recall of one batch of the HPV vaccine, but the inquest heard that Natalie's death was not due to an allergic reaction to it.

Her father, John Morton, said Natalie, who wanted to be a school teacher, was assessed by a consultant five days before her death and had seemed "OK in herself" on the weekend prior to her death, but that she had not been well since late June last year.

Recalling a visit to a consultant paediatrician at Coventry's University Hospital, her mother, Elaine Bullock told the coroner: "At that moment in time nobody knew that she had a tumour.

"It was very masked. We all did our best for Natalie and nobody knew what she had."

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