Sudden Death of Young New Zealander Raises Serious Questions for Coroners

May 28, 2026

Office of the Coroner
Email: [email protected]

Dear Coroner, 

We have read the newspaper reporting about the death of 26 yr old Ryan Richmond on 16 May 2026. It is noted that his death has been referred to the coroner and that a coroner’s initial inquiry indicated he died from “an unknown heart event”, which was also referred to as “a sudden and ‘totally unexpected’ heart event”.

Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) and Covid Vaccination Status

We want to make sure you consider the covid vaccination status of this young man.  We note that there is an MoU between the Office of the Chief Coroner and the Ministry of Health with regards to sharing of information.  This related to death following covid infection initially but was updated in Dec 2021 to include death following covid vaccination.

It includes in Appendix 2: Information to be provided by the Ministry of Health to the Office of the Chief Coroner – “Vaccination status of persons whose deaths are investigated by the Coroners and which might be related to the COVID-19 vaccine.”

Despite the above MoU we are aware that the covid vaccination status of suddenly and unexpectedly dead (young) people is not automatically included in the information required for a coronial investigation and appears not to be mentioned at all unless the family has raised concerns.

If Ryan has never received any covid vaccines then we do not have any concerns or comments.  However, if he did receive one or more covid vaccine, this must be considered during a coronial investigation and we provide more information below.

Cardiac Adverse Events following Covid Vaccination

Covid vaccination can cause a variety of cardiac adverse effects, with myocarditis being the most commonly acknowledged and well-recognised one. 

Acute heart failure, coronary artery occlusion, arrhythmia, cardiac tamponade, cardiac rupture, pericarditis, sudden death (which can be months or even years later), and chronic heart failure are some of the other adverse cardiac events that have been reported following covid vaccination.

Pharmacovigilance

The investigation into an unexpected death following a novel medical procedure (even four or five years later) must consider and assess the role of that medical procedure.  It has been well documented that young men of Ryan’s age were at particular risk from myocarditis following covid vaccination.  This could be symptomatic (chest pain, palpitations, shortness of breath, dizziness) at the time or relatively asymptomatic, also known as subclinical myocarditis.  Regardless of initial severity, post vaccine myocarditis can cause residual scarring that can disrupt electrical conduction pathways in the heart at a later date and be a focus for a fatal arrhythmia.

[It should be noted that there was no medium- or long-term data from the Pfizer vaccine clinical trial and the country and world are still very much within the post-marketing phase and still gathering data.]

If he was covid vaccinated, Ryan’s death should be reported to Centre for Adverse Reactions Monitoring (CARM) and a formal pharmacovigilance causality assessment of his premature death, using officially recognised criteria, should be conducted by suitably qualified experts.

Knowledge of Increased Risk of Myocarditis for Young People

The increased risk of myocarditis for young people was known and acknowledged by the NZ government’s Technical Advisory Group for covid vaccinations (CV-TAG) in 2021.

“The individual risk to young people of severe disease is very low. For them to make an informed decision not to get a second dose of the vaccine eg, due to potential myocarditis risk is justified.”

To reduce this heightened risk, the CV-TAG recommended increasing the dosing interval from 3 weeks to 6-8 weeks and also recommended that a single dose be sufficient to obtain a vaccine passport.

The recent covid inquiry report noted that this increased risk and possible mitigating factors were not well communicated either to officials or to the public. Subsequently, concerning details alleging deliberate suppression of safety information are emerging.
 

Cardiologist Dr Peter McCullough’s comments

Dr McCullough, world-renowned US cardiologist, believes sudden death in a young, healthy, covid-vaccinated person with no obvious explanation should be attributed to covid vaccination and myocarditis.

He has stated: “When we see a young person now, who’s previously healthy, no antecedent illness and they suddenly die, and the two patterns are dying in sleep, typically from 3 am to 6 am or dying during sports, and by the way in both of those time periods there is a rise in epinephrine, norepinephrine (adrenaline and noradrenaline) which is probably an internal trigger for this, and there’s no suicide, there’s no drug overdose, there’s no motor vehicle accident, it is the covid 19 vaccine and subclinical myocarditis until the parents come out or the family comes out and tell us otherwise.  And the family they can clear this up.  If they come out and say listen, they didn’t take the vaccine, then OK we’ll lay down our concern. But let’s be conservative and assume right now that these are fatal vaccine-induced myocarditis cases.”

He has also commented that the signs of previous myocarditis at post mortem can be extremely subtle and easily missed, especially if there is only limited sampling of heart tissue.

References

At the end of this article we provide a list of references that provide evidence to support our concerns that the covid vaccines could cause or contribute to untimely deaths in young people. The studies confirm that myocarditis does occur post mRNA vaccination, particularly in young men, that it can be asymptomatic or have few symptoms, that it can cause scarring in the heart which may be very subtle at post mortem, that it can lead to arrhythmias, some of which can be fatal, and these can occur anywhere from days to even years later.

This is a link to an exemplar list of child deaths about which our professional assessment leaves questions, and here are previous communications with senior coroners. 

We are concerned that the coronial system does not seem to be using all the resources at its disposal with regards to investigating sudden and unexpected deaths in the wake of a nationwide mass vaccination programme, and hope that you will address our concerns and use your moral and statutory coronial authority to provide Ryan’s loved ones with whatever comfort can be gained from a detailed and non-prejudicial investigation. 

Yours sincerely,

Drs Alison Goodwin, Matt Shelton and Cindy de Villiers
On behalf of New Zealand Doctors Speaking Out with Science (NZDSOS)