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Teenager, 18, declared brain dead after being hit by a van wakes up

An 18-year-old who was declared brain dead after being hit by a van blinked and started breathing on his own hours before his organs were due to be donated.

Lewis Roberts, from Leek, Staffordshire, was struck by the vehicle in his hometown on March 13 and suffered catastrophic head injuries.

He was flown by air ambulance to Royal Stoke University Hospital where his family were told four days later he had lost his fight for life and to say their final goodbyes.

They agreed to donate Lewis's organs to help seven other people, but just hours before the surgery the teenager began to breathe again on his own.

His sister Jade Roberts, 28, posted an extraordinary video with her brother from his hospital bedside on March 18.

She was recording the machine monitoring his breathing and said: 'Are you ready Lew, one, two, three breathe.'

The device then showed a brown line and she cried out in surprise, adding: 'Have a break, clever boy.' Someone added through tears: 'He's just twitched.'

Later in the clip - after a few unsuccessful attempts to get him to breathe on his own - Jade said: 'One, two, three, and a big breath.'

The machine again turned brown and his sister said: 'I'm telling you Lew, you're amazing, you are amazing.'

In an update two days ago, Jade said on March 26 he had managed a full day without using a ventilator.

But she said on March 28 he had to use it again due to what 'could be a chest infection which is been looked into'.

Jade added in a Facebook post last week: 'After taking out numerous tests the hospital told us Lewis had given up the fight, no response and had suffered brain stem death.

'We signed forms you wouldn't even believe and conversations you'd never believe.. we were intended to say our final goodbyes.

'Lewis was officially certified as dead last week And his death was even reported to the coroner.

'I headed up at midnight. I held Lewis' hand and asked him to breath after one two three.

'We were waiting for a brown line to show for many days, to show he had taken a breath for himself but we had nothing.

'When I said breath the brown line showed and he took a breath... We were told no it must be an error, impossible.

'And they are sorry and they understand its such a difficult time for the family. We agreed no Lewis can hear us.

'I got back home to a phone call... ''Lewis is breathing now''. His eyes are dilating which before we had nothing. Zero.

'And to be told he was brain dead and suffered brain stem death and was literally certified as dead.

'The hospital family can not even believe the miracle they said they've never ever witnessed this and Lewis is the second person in the whole wide world to do this.

'Mega mega mixed emotions.. Just absolutely unbelievable. Please keep praying we are obviously so so over whelmed after hearing we lost our boy.'

Lewis completed selection for the British Army at an assessment centre in December 2019 and proudly posted a picture of his certificate on Facebook.

Another image shows he was set to be part of the regular soldier intake at Army Training Regiment Winchester in Hampshire from February 2, 2020.

More than £2,000 has already been raised for Lewis through an online fundraiser titled 'A Pint for Lewis', which was set up yesterday.

Organiser Chloe Roberts said: 'On March 13, Lewis suffered catastrophic head injuries when he was struck by a van in his hometown of Leek and was flown to hospital where he underwent emergency surgery.

'Four days later, the doctors broke the news to our family that nothing more could be done as he had unfortunately suffered a ''brain stem death'' and sadly passed away.

'After saying our goodbyes to Lewis, close family bravely agreed for his organs to be donated to help the lives of seven other people.

'This bought Lewis extra time before his life support machine was turned off. Just hours before Lewis' surgery, he began to breathe again on his own.'A miracle any family could wish for after being told he had zero chance of pulling through.

'After this Lewis has carried on progressing. He has started to react to pain tests, moving his limbs on his own, and also moving his head from side to side, blinking and also moving his mouth. Every day, this boy is getting stronger.

'Many people have asked to send money for a pint for Lewis. Any money that is sent will be for Lewis when he is home and back on his feet.

'We would just like to say, as a family, thank you so much and we are very grateful for everyone's prayers and best wishes for Lewis.'

Lewis, a former Leek High School pupil, from Blackshaw Moor, was knocked over on Broad Street, in Leek, near its junction with Hartington Street.

A Staffordshire Police spokesman said: 'Inquiries are still ongoing with regards to establishing the circumstances around the collision and witnesses are still being spoken to.

'There won't be any further update until these inquiries are completed.' Anyone with any information should call the police on 101, quoting incident number 413 of March 13.

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Reference: Daily ExpressAdam Chapman  22 hrs ago

Pfizer has admitted it could ditch German firm that made its Covid jab

Reference: Connor Boyd Assistant Health Editor For Mailonline  1 day ago

Pfizer has admitted it may ditch the German biotech firm that made its breakthrough coronavirus jab as it looks to drastically expand its vaccine business. The US drugs giant has revealed plans to use gene-based technology, harnessed by BioNTech, to tackle other viruses and illnesses beyond Covid.  

Pfizer's boss claimed the firm had learned enough about mRNA vaccines to go solo, adding that it no longer 'needs to work with BioNTech' beyond the end of the companies' flu jab agreement in July. Albert Bourla, the firm's chief executive, revealed the company had recruited at least 50 more scientists to work out of its new mRNA-focused lab in New York.

It has also secured specialised raw materials and designed clinical trials so that it can manufacture and study vaccines without splitting profits. Mr Bourla told the Wall Street Journal: 'We like working with BioNTech, but we don’t need to work with BioNTech. We have our own expertise developed.' 

The German company was the brains behind the Covid jab, which was proven to be 95 per cent effective at blocking Covid symptoms and became the first in the world to get approval in December when Britain gave it the green light. Pfizer, most famous for inventing Viagra, came on board to manufacture, distribute and commercialise the vaccine. 

The two companies are currently splitting profits on the Covid jab evenly, with sales expected to return roughly £13billion this year. BioNTech seemed unaffected by the news in a statement and said it welcomed the 'acknowledgement' of the technology it had developed.

Analysts at JP Morgan forecast more than £8.5bn in sales for the jab next year, which will increase if annual booster shots are needed. BioNTech is expected to supply one billion doses of the jab this year, a target that increased by a quarter when it got approval for its factory in Marburg, Germany.

And Pfizer is matching this with another billion, bringing the pair's total to two billion. A BioNTech spokeswoman told the WSJ: 'We consider it a great acknowledgment for mRNA technologies that companies such as our partner Pfizer are getting involved into building their own mRNA vaccine strategy.'

The two firms first began to collaborate in 2018 with the aim of making a flu vaccine. But that original deal expires this July, at which point Pfizer will continue to research, manufacture and sell any jab proven to work. 

Scientists say mRNA vaccines are cheaper to make and easier to modify in the face of new variants or viruses. The process of developing mRNA vaccines is also purely synthetic, meaning experts don't have to rely on living cells from plants or animals.

Making mRNA vaccines requires special equipment and raw materials that weren’t commonly available before Covid hit. Pfizer/BioNTech's Covid jab was the first ever mRNA vaccine to get approval for fighting any disease. Rival American firm Moderna has also created an mRNA jab proven to thwart coronavirus.

Pfizer's boss said it has become self-sufficient after learning how to produce mRNA vaccines itself, without relying on suppliers. The New York-based firm, which is one of the world's biggest pharmaceuticals, has declined to say which viruses it will target next with the mRNA technology.

But it's likely booster coronavirus shots will be needed in the future as new variants emerge. The global flu vaccination market is also valued at about £3bn. Pfizer’s vaccine portfolio already includes one of the most profitable jabs on the market — the pneumonia vaccine Prevnar 13. It made Pfizer nearly £4.3bn in sales last year.

It is also using traditional vaccine technology to develop shots for Lyme disease and colon infections. Traditional vaccines use one harmless, typically inactivated virus - such as the types that cause common colds - to teach the immune system to recognise the threat and kill it in future.

Studies have found that, although the mRNA vaccine was relatively untested, it appears to have been a huge success in the pandemic. A study in the UK found a single dose of Pfizer's jab produces a 'robust' immune response in 99 per cent of people. 

 The study was done on 237 health workers in Sheffield, Oxford, Liverpool, Newcastle and Birmingham. Most volunteers were female. It measured levels of both antibodies and T-cells, which are substances used by the immune system to destroy the coronavirus. Higher levels generally mean stronger immunity.  Scientists found that, after one dose of the vaccine, people who had been infected with Covid in the past had 6.8 times as many antibodies in their blood as those who had not.

They had 2.9 times as many antibodies after one dose as people who had not been infected but who had been given two jabs, the total vaccine course.But the experts said second doses are still needed for everyone because the booster is thought to make immunity last for longer. And the scientist behind Pfizer's vaccine now says the technology could soon be used to fight cancer. 

Ozlem Tureci, who co-founded BioNTech with her husband, was working on a way to harness the body's immune system to tackle tumours when they learned last year of an unknown virus infecting people in China. And within 11 months, Britain had authorised the use of the mRNA Covid-19 vaccine they developed with US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, with approval from the US following a week later. 

Tens of millions of people worldwide have received the shot since December. 'It pays off to make bold decisions and to trust that if you have an extraordinary team, you will be able to solve any problem and obstacle which comes your way in real time,' Tureci said.

Among the biggest challenges for the small, Mainz-based company that had never brought a product to market before was how to conduct large-scale clinical trials across different regions and how to scale up the manufacturing process to meet global demand. Along with Pfizer, the company enlisted the help of Fosun Pharma in China 'to get assets, capabilities and geographical footprint on board, which we did not have,' Tureci said. Among the lessons she and her husband, BioNTech chief executive Ugur Sahin, learned along with their colleagues was 'how important cooperation and collaboration is internationally.'

Tureci, who was born in Germany to Turkish immigrants, said the company, which has staff members from 60 countries, reached out to medical oversight bodies from the start, to ensure that the new type of vaccine would pass the rigorous scrutiny of regulators. 'The process of getting a medicine or a vaccine approved is one where many questions are asked, many experts are involved and there is external peer review of all the data and scientific discourse,' she said.

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EU threatens AstraZeneca with export ban

The European Union’s executive arm has said AstraZeneca could face export bans to countries outside the bloc if it does not speed up its delivery of the promised amount of vaccines.

The move comes as the European Commission increases the pressure on pharmaceutical companies to speed up their vaccine delivery to the continent as virus cases increase in many member countries.

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said: “We have the possibility to ban planned exports.

© Provided by PA Media (PA Graphics)

“This is a message to AstraZeneca: You fulfil your part of the deal toward Europe before you start to deliver to other countries.”

Speaking to German media group Funke, Ms von der Leyen said the contract between the EU and AstraZeneca clearly regulates how much vaccines the EU receives from AstraZeneca’s plants inside the EU and in the UK.

The move comes as the European Commission increases the pressure on pharmaceutical companies to speed up their vaccine delivery to the continent as virus cases increase in many member countries.

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said: “We have the possibility to ban planned exports.

By AP Reporters  20/03/2021