[SaneVax: Jasmine Renata, a teenager from New Zealand, died in her sleep six months after her third Gardasil® injection. A complete autopsy failed to determine the cause of her unexplained death. Coroner Ian Smith will spend the next two days conducting an inquest to attempt to determine the cause. Read her mother’s account of her last months of life here. The SaneVax team will update this article on a regular basis to provide links to various news stories published about the proceedings. Please check back on a regular basis for updates.]
Inquest into girl’s mystery death begins
By Paul Gallagher
08 Aug 2012: A coroner’s inquest is underway in Wellington today to investigate what killed an Upper Hutt 18-year-old nearly three years ago.
Jasmine Renata died in her sleep in September 2009 and her mother, Rhonda Renata, blames the cervical cancer vaccine Gardasil for her death.
Wellington coroner Ian Smith will spend the next two days investigating the cause of death.
Ms Renata’s death came six months after she had received the last of three injections of the cervical cancer vaccine.
Her family members believe it may have had a direct connection to her passing.
Her family members believe it may have had a direct connection to her passing. Read more: Read the entire article here.
Teen’s brain tissue sent for examination
By Fairfax NZ News, The Dominion Post
08 Aug 2012: Upper Hutt teenager Jasmine Renata’s mother sent brain tissue to Canada to be examined after concerns that he daughter died after receiving the cervical cancer vaccine Gardasil.
The inquest into 18-year-old Jasmine Renata’s death begin today in Wellington and is expected to take two days.
She was found dead in her bed in Upper Hutt in September 2009, six months after receiving the last of three vaccination injections.
Rhonda Renata said before getting the injections Jasmine was fit and healthy but after the first one her health began to decline, as did her emotional state.
Mother blames cancer vaccine for teen’s death
By Rebecca Quillam, New Zealand Herald
08 Aug 2012: The mother of a teenager found dead in her bed has told an inquest that her daughter’s physical and mental health deteriorated sharply when she was given the Gardasil cervical cancer vaccination.
Jasmine Renata, 18, died in September 2009 in a sleepout at her home in Upper Hutt, north of Wellington.
She had received the last of three injections of Gardasil six months earlier.
At the time of her death, Ms Renata’s mother Rhonda said she believed Gardasil may have been the cause.
At an inquest in Wellington today before Coroner Ian Smith, Mrs Renata said her daughter was fit, rarely got sick, didn’t smoke and rarely drank alcohol.
But after her first Gardasil dose in September 2008, she developed pains in various parts of her body, suffered a racing heart beat, weak arms, tingling in her hands and legs, and became tired and irritable.
Her hair had started falling out and she was sleeping as much as possible.
The day before Ms Renata died, she had passed her driver’s test, which she was “stoked” about.
Family blames vaccine for daughter’s death
From New Zealand City News, August 8, 2012
The family of an Upper Hutt teenager who died in her sleep in 2009 have told a coroner’s inquest they are convinced a vaccine intended to prevent cervical cancer was responsible for her death.
Jasmine Nicole Renata, 18, was found dead in her bed at home on September 22, 2009.
She had received the last of three injections of the Gardasil vaccine, which protects against human papillomavirus (HPV), six months earlier.
On Tuesday, her mother, Rhonda Renata, told an inquest before Coroner Ian Smith in Wellington that she believes the vaccine caused her daughter’s death.
Miss Renata had been fit and healthy with no medical conditions, but after her first Gardasil injection in 2008 she suffered warts on her hands, bleeding gums, dizziness and nausea, a racing heart and her hair was falling out, her mother said.
She also suffered chest pains and headaches, and became tired and agitated.
The only other medication Miss Renata took was the Depo-Provera contraceptive injection, which she had received since age 14.
The nurse who administered Miss Renata’s Gardasil injections, Patricia Ryan, said she had not reported any side-effects in her visits to her clinic.
No issues with teen’s Gardasil, says MedSafe
By Rebecca Quillam
Medicine safety authority MedSafe says there were no manufacturing problems with the cervical cancer vaccination batch given to a Wellington teenager.
Jasmine Renata’s parents have blamed Gardasil for causing her death in September, 2009. The 18-year-old had received the last of three injections of Gardasil six months earlier.
At an inquest in Wellington yesterday before coroner Ian Smith, Rhonda Renata said her daughter was fit, rarely got sick, didn’t smoke and rarely drank alcohol.
But after her first Gardasil dose in September 2008, she developed pains in various parts of her body, suffered a racing heart beat, weak arms, tingling in her hands and legs, and became tired and irritable.
Her hair started falling out and she was sleeping as much as possible.
“[Husband] Joe and I believe the vaccine that Jasmine had been given contributed to her death. The year she received the vaccine she had never complained so much about her mental or physical state,” she told the inquest.
( http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10825660 )
‘Biological plausibility’ that vaccine caused death
Excerpt from Otago Daily Times article, 9 Aug 2012
Neuroscientist Professor Christopher Shaw of the University of Columbia in Vancouver told the inquest via video-link today that he was sent Ms Renata’s brain tissue to test.
He said there was aluminium in all the samples he tested and there were some abnormalities in the samples.
The human papillomavirus (HPV16) was found in her brain, which could have only got there through the vaccine, Prof Shaw said.
Gardasil is given to prevent some strains of HPV, and so a small amount of the virus is in the vaccine.
Mrs Renata asked Prof Shaw if the vaccine was likely to have caused her daughter’s death.
He said there was a “biological plausibility” that that was the case because of the abnormalities in her brain he had examined.
However, he could not say conclusively that was the cause of her death.
Dr San Hang Lee, a pathologist at Milford Hospital in Connecticut, told the inquest via video-link that he tested samples from Ms Renata’s blood and spleen.
He also found aluminium and HPV in her system, from the vaccine.
Dr Lee could not say for sure what caused Ms Renata’s death, but said the results he found from testing samples from her were “unnatural”.
Foreign DNA found in teenager’s blood
The Dominion Post, 8 Aug 2012
Fragments of foreign DNA found in Upper Hutt teenager Jasmine Renata’s blood and spleen after her death could have caused a fatal shock reaction, an American pathologist has told her inquest.
Her parents, Joe and Rhonda Renata, believe her death was a result of her having three injections of Gardasil, the vaccine for cervical cancer in 2008 and 2009.
Jasmine, 18, was found dead in her bed in September 2009 six months after her last injection.
Her mother yesterday outlined Jasmine’s declining health and said after her daughter’s death she became concerned about the vaccine and began research.
Dr San Hang Lee a pathologist at Milford Hospital in Connecticut gave evidence on the second day of the inquest by videolink.
Vaccine: The Cause of Renata’s Death?
By Danesh Chandra Gaur
If theories of two overseas experts are to be believed then there are higher chances of biological plausibility confirming that vaccine has caused her death.
It is the case of an 18-year-old woman Ms. Jasmine Renata, who was given a cervical cancer vaccine Gardasil in the year 2008 and unfortunately suddenly died in September 2009. Two overseas experts have mentioned in their findings at a coroner’s enquiry about the evidences stating that the cervical cancer vaccine, which was given could have some links with her death.