Portsmouth teenager Jorja Halliday, 15, died from 'extremely rare' heart inflammation sparked by Covid-19 on the day she was due get vaccine, inquest finds

Avid kickboxer Jorja Halliday, 15, was due to get her Covid-19 vaccine on Tuesday, October 28, 2021 – but she was rushed by her mother to Queen Alexandra Hospital, after testing positive for Covid-19 three days prior.

Aspiring musician Jorja, a GCSE student at The Portsmouth Academy, died at the Cosham hospital after her condition rapidly deteriorated across a just a few hours, as the disease caused her heart tissue to become fatally inflamed.

Speaking at the inquest at Portsmouth Coroners’ Court today, Jorja’s mother, Tracey Halliday, asked attending doctors if Jorja’s death could have been prevented had she received a Covid-19 vaccine sooner.

Responding to the question, doctors said it was impossible to say if the vaccine would have stopped the tragic outcome.

Dr Nicholas Tarmey, a consultant in anaesthetics and intensive care medicine who treated Jorja at Queen Alexandra Hospital, said: ‘I don’t really know because it’s such an unusual case. I suppose having a Covid-19 jab would reduce the risk of these complications.’

Whether the jab would have made a difference would ‘always’ be a question in Tracey’s mind.

Speaking to The News after the inquest, she said: ‘If she had had it sooner, would things have been different...it’s a question no-one can answer. There’s a lot of “what ifs”.’

Dr Tarmey said that Jorja’s case was the only instance of Covid causing fatal heart inflammation in a child that he had ever seen.

According to the consultant, medical staff had been left ‘horrified’ at the speed of Jorja’s deterioration.

Dr Tarmey said: ‘She had a look of fearfulness that she couldn’t meet the demands of her body.

‘It was a tough call. We thought in the next half an hour she will have a cardiac arrest if we don’t put her on a ventilator, but...that could push her over the edge.

‘We were all horrified by how quickly she deteriorated, especially those of us who met and spoke to her earlier.

‘There’s not many illnesses cause a deterioration as quickly as that.

‘I’m sure it’s extremely rare, and the only reason we have seen a few cases around the country is because so many children have had Covid.’

The inquest heard that Jorja had suffered from Kawasaki disease as a young child which can have long-term vascular effects but she had been given the all-clear and the coroner ruled out a link.

Consultant paediatric pathologist Samantha Holden gave a cause of death of acute myocarditis associated with Covid-19 infection and added: “She was the only child I have seen that has Covid myocarditis.”

The night before her admittance to hospital saw the teenager struggle to keep down food, vomit repeatedly, and suffer from pain all over her body, according to her mother, who said she had been frantic with worry.

The Buckingham Green resident said: ‘She usually had a healthy look about her. In the morning she wasn’t looking overly pale but as the day went on, the paler she got.’

‘Covid-19 can do this to young, fit, and healthy people.’

Despite her harrowing experience, Jorja’s mother said that receiving a vaccine should remain a personal choice.

She said: ‘People can make their own decision.

‘Some of my neighbours have decided not to get the jab. It’s a personal choice.’

Jorja’s mother paid tribute to the medical staff at Queen Alexandra Hospital for their repeated efforts to administer CPR and keep the teenager alive.

Fighting back tears, Tracey said: ‘All the staff did everything she could. I stayed in the room and saw they did everything they could. Falling short of a bypass, there’s nothing else they could have done.’

Hampshire assistant deputy coroner Sarah Whitby concluded the inquest by finding that Jorja Halliday died of acute myocardiotis associated with Covid-19, despite ‘the swift action of her mother’.

The assistant coroner said: ‘The jab might have recued the risk but extrapolated that to this situation, (we) couldn’t go that far.

‘We can’t compare it with other children of her age. It’s difficult to say.’

Last year saw friends and family pay tribute to the teenager at the funeral, saying that the ‘one of a kind’ teenager was ‘born to be a star’.

Ms Halliday has previously said that Jorja, a GCSE student at The Portsmouth Academy, was a ‘loving girl’, a talented kickboxer and an aspiring musician.

She said: ‘She was a loving girl and she had lots of friends.

‘She was very active, she liked to go out and spend time with her friends and loved spending time with her brothers and sisters.

‘Growing up she turned into a beautiful young lady, always wanting to help others, always there for everybody.’

Ms Halliday added: “It’s heart-wrenching because your kids are always meant to outlive you, and that’s the one thing I can’t get over.”