A Hong Kong man who died days after receiving the China-made Sinovac Covid-19 vaccine in 2022 died of natural causes, a jury has ruled in a coroner’s court inquest.
A five-member jury on Thursday returned the ruling on the death of 44-year-old Lam Ka-wing, who died on July 11, 2022, five days after he received his first dose of the Sinovac vaccine.
The coroner’s court inquest previously heard that Lam, a clerk, was admitted to Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) due to chest pain two days following the jab and died three days later, according to local media reports.
Expert witnesses told the court that Lam died from an aortic dissection-induced cardiac tamponade – a condition where fluid accumulates around the heart and could be fatal.
The experts, who said they believed the death was unrelated to the vaccine, added that the condition could occur naturally.
The court also heard that despite Lam being diagnosed with an aortic dissection, doctors at QEH were not able to perform surgery for him in time due to a lack of operation rooms at that time.
Coroner Raymund Chow on Thursday told the jury that QEH was a designated hospital for Covid-19 patients during the pandemic, which could have strained the hospital’s medical resources.
Doctors at QEH nonetheless treated Lam during his hospitalisation, Chow added.
Lam’s family told reporters after the verdict that the death was “unfortunate” due to the pandemic, but they accepted the jury’s ruling, according to Ming Pao.
In 2021, a jury returned an open verdict – meaning there was no decision – in the case of a 63-year-old man who died two days after getting the Sinovac jab. The jury rejected a pathologist’s conclusion that the man’s death was a “coincidental event.”
