Inquest into cancer jab girl death

Natalie Morton died last November after being taken ill at Coventry's Blue Coat Church of England School
12 April 2012

An inquest is due to be held into the death of a teenager who collapsed after being given a cervical cancer vaccine at school.

Natalie Morton, who had a serious underlying health condition, died last November after being taken ill at Coventry's Blue Coat Church of England School.

The opening of her inquest, held in October last year, heard that the 14-year-old died from a malignant tumour in her chest.

The coroner's inquest, which will resume at Coventry Magistrates Court, was told the cancer vaccine was not thought to be a contributing factor in the death.

Natalie, from the Stoke area of Coventry, collapsed in a school corridor less than two hours after being given an injection as part of a national vaccination programme.

A post-mortem examination established that the tumour in Natalie's chest had infiltrated her heart and that her condition was so severe that death could have arisen at any point.

Before the preliminary results from the autopsy on Natalie were known, a batch of the vaccine was recalled as a precautionary measure.

But health experts have stressed that the vaccine is safe, estimating that the chance of developing a severe, life-threatening reaction to it is around one in a million, while the probability of a British woman developing cervical cancer over her lifetime is 7,400 times greater.

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