This is the first part in a series on the sudden death of Christopher Coulter. Part two can be found here.
On a Sunday morning just before Christmas, the 18th December, 1994, to be exact, the lives of Anne and Harry Coulter of Hillsborough, Northern Ireland, were shattered.Their son, fifteen years old Christopher, was lying, dead, in his bed. The inquest, held the following year at Belfast Coroner’s Court, found that Christopher had died of asphyxiation resulting from a seizure. His parents report that neither Christopher nor anyone in his family have a history of epilepsy. Today, almost twenty-four years to the day the Coulter’s lost Christopher, a second inquest into their child’s sudden and unexpected death is, once again, due to start.
Now, if all this seems familiar, it should. Back in February 2012, when this blog was a lot more active, OK, active, I wrote that the second inquest was, then, expected to begin. It didn’t. Marcel Kinsbourne, the “vaccine expert” hired by lawyers for the Coulter family, whose testimony and supposed expertise were the grounds for ordering this second examination into Christopher’s death, couldn’t fit it into his schedule. What proceeded is a litany of delays, frustrations and road blocks that serve as testament to the tenacity of Anne Coulter, Christopher’s mother, that, twenty-four years later, her son’s death is to be re-examined.
The Coulters are on a quest for someone to take responsibility for their son’s death, convinced the MR (measles and rubella) vaccine Christopher received at his high school ten days earlier as part of a nationwide catch up program, triggered the child’s first and fatal seizure. Speaking to thedetail.tv in March 2011, Anne Coulter said,
I have always known what killed Christopher and fear that people are just trying to cover this up. I think that children are being damaged by vaccines being pumped into their bodies which they cannot cope with.
A belief no doubt bolstered by their expert witness, Kinsbourne, a retired paediatric neurologist who, in June 2007, testified in the US vaccine court’s Omnibus Autism Proceeding that vaccine strain measles travels to the brain causing autism. Offering a certainty that no one else will, or can, in his report on Christopher’s death, Kinsbourne is unequivocal:
…on the balance of probabilities Christopher’s seizure and death were caused by the MR vaccination. Furthermore, there is no medically reasonable evidence of an alternative causation.
A Time Line of Events
So, what has been going on in Christopher Coulter’s case for the last two decades plus? I’ve compiled a brief timeline. Over the next few days, I will explore some of the issues it throws up including vaccine injury compensation in the UK and Northern Ireland (spoiler: it’s a disgrace), expert witnesses and vaccine safety among other things.
(approx) 8th December 1994
MR vaccine administered at school.
Sunday morning, 18th December
Christopher’s father Harry, goes to wake his son but finds him dead in bed.
1995
First inquest takes place.
Cause of death recorded as asphyxiation likely as a result of myoclonic juvenile epilepsy, i.e. Sudden Unexplained Death in Epilepsy, SUDEP
January 1996
Professor (now Dame) Ingrid Allen of the Institute of Pathology at Queen’s College, Belfast, writes to the National Institute for Biological Standards and Control to query whether the batch of MR vaccine Christopher and another student at his school who’d also suffered a first seizure a few days before Christopher died was responsible for an unusual number of “unexplained complications.” Dr David Salisbury, Director of Immunisations at the then Department of Health, DoH, (now the Department of Health and Social Care) replied there had not been.
February 1996
Christopher’s GP submits a report to the The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) of Christopher’s potential reaction to the MR vaccine via the Yellow Card reporting system (then not taking submissions from the public).
1997
The Coulter family’s claim for compensation from the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme is rejected by a tribunal in London on a split decision with one of the three-strong presiding panel in favour of awarding compensation.
Friday, 7th February 2012
– NI Attorney General, John Larkin QC, orders second inquest under Section 14 of the Coroner’s Act 1959.
– Kinsbourne is described by family’s solicitor Pádraig Ó Muirigh as a “vaccine expert”.
November 2013
– Coroner, Suzanne Anderson provisionally reschedules second inquest for five months ahead (April/May 2014) as Kinsbourne has “other commitments” and the family deems his presence preferable to his testifying via video link.
– The coroner requests all of the -Christopher’s medical notes as they weren’t submitted at the 1995 inquest.
17th June 2013
Provisional date.
Case not heard.
19th November 2013
Provisional date.
Case not heard.
Family could not secure “exceptional funding,” from the Legal Aid board.
February 2015 – April 2016
“Another huge delay marked by nothing in terms of concrete action,” Mr Justice McCloskey, high court judge due to preside over the new inquest in 2018.
27th October
First preliminary hearing scheduled.
26th November 2018
Case scheduled to be heard.
Tomorrow
Should there be any updates on what should be the start of the second inquest into Christopher Coulter’s death, I will, of course, write about them. In addition, I will look at the first inquest in a little more detail and the grounds on which a second was granted and the obstacles the family has faced in getting their son’s case reconsidered as directed.
Finally, I have come back to blogging (with more than a little trepidation) because I believe Christopher Coulter’s case, whatever its outcome, could have vast implications for the perception of the MMR vaccine although he never received it. Personally, I have huge admiration for Christopher’s family, his mother, Anne Coulter, in particular, and I hope that these proceedings reach a finality that brings her peace. I don’t know what it’s like to lose a child and hope I never will. My sympathies go out to all who love Christopher for their loss.
featured image: Gates of Hillsborough Castle, Wiki Commons.
Autismum 
Undoubtedly the MR vaccine contributed to Christopher’s death. Both Measles virus and Rubella virus create neurological infections. However, it is not absolutely clear that the MR vaccine alone caused Christophers death, as his schoolmate who also received the vaccine also suffered neurological involvement but did not die. Something in Christopher’s makeup, or something lacking in Christopher’s makeup also contributed. Life is never without risks, and it is sad that Christopher met his end fate at that time, but his physical body was a contributor to his death, along with the MR vaccine.
Thank you for taking the time to comment. While, there is doubt that the vaccine triggered his seizure, I really don’t believe that the possibility was adequately investigated. I hope you’ll stick with this series here and I will go into more depth on the issues surrounding this poor child’s case.
I am a bit of an expert on measles virus, being the person who sequenced the long polymerase gene of the virus and completed the measles virus genome sequence. But there two whole sides of the picture that are missing. First, Rubella virus (German measles) also confers a neurological infection. It is said that the third of Queen Elizabeth’s four sons was clubfooted because she contracted Rubella while pregnant with him (obviously, there is MUCH more to this story). Christopher’s problems might have been primarily due to Rubella instead of measles. Second, there is another virus that nobody wants to talk about that might have played a role here, and that is HHV-6. Usually HHV-6 is benign and indolent, but when it is “riled up” by another agent, such as measles virus, HHV-6 is capable of causing fatal brain disease. HHV-6 is also commensal and universally acquired by 3 years of age, so we ALL have it. It primarily infects oligodendrocytes, the brain cells that form the myelin sheathes on neuronal axons, so that activation of HHV-6 can result in cutoff of neural circuits such as breathing. FYI, the way Christopher acquired his HHV-6 was most likely through YOU, when you first kissed him in his cradle as a newborn. And NO, that does not mean that you caused his death or wanted to: it is just part of the risk factors that we all live with everyday. A good neuropathologist might be able to deduce which of the three viruses was the most important in Christopher’s death, but the public health interest in the MR vaccine is so strong that continued vaccination is warranted, in view of the risks of catching measles from travelers in our modern aviation-driven societies. I have been mulling this sort of thing over for several years now, in connection with what I think is the central role of HHV-6 in causing autism and multiple sclerosis. I would be glad to e-discuss this with you further, but first please go to Google Scholar on the Internet and look up two papers I published online last year. First is “The secret lives of HHV-6” and second is “The Signature: a never sent letter…”. I believe that HHV-6 has as good a chance of being the real culprit here as measles or Rubella virus, and HHV-6 is NOT a vaccine virus so there is nobody to complain to if it was the true instigator of Christopher’s troubles.
Again, thanks for commenting. I would be more than happy to chat, I have an Autismum page on Facebook, so please ping me there (I generally use my email for subscriptions and invoices so rarely check it). I will certainly look up your work in the morning (which it is, in fact now).
I am grateful that you are doing this.
Not crying. Absolutely not. Thank you, my dear friend. I set up a Google Alert in 2012 and it dinged not long ago. Seems like the right time to come back
Go ahead and cry your heart out, which I am sure you have done many times already. I think the introduction of HHV-6 might be the missing part of your puzzle It is both a complication and a rationalizer.
FYI, I don’t do Facebook or twitter or any of the social internet stuff. Just plain old e-mail for me. Just as well, too, in light of all the stolen information from Facebook and Google.
My pleasure. I have been trying to contact people who have experienced brain damage due to measles or HHV-6 for a long time.