A YORK lecturer’s death after suffering for months from severe long Covid symptoms remains a mystery, following an inquest today.

The inquest was told that a post mortem examination had failed to ascertain the cause of Dr Ed Rooksby’s death, and various tests for conditions, ordered by his GP prior to his death, had all come back negative.

Coroner Jon Heath concluded there was no evidence of drugs or alcohol contributing to his death, and there were no suspicious circumstances, and he was satisfied Dr Rooksby had died from ‘natural causes.’

The inquest heard that Dr Rooksby was found dead in bed at his home in Tang Hall by a police officer who broke in following concerns for his welfare.

Dr Rooksby wrote at length about his condition in a blog before his death in February. He said he fell ill with the coronavirus at the start of the pandemic in March last year, believing he caught it from an assistant in a city centre shop with a bad cough as he queued to make a purchase.He said he was too embarrassed to leave the line before it was his turn to be served.

He said his symptoms were relatively mild for several months until, last August, he went for a walk along the riverside."I suddenly felt very ill, like I was going to faint and collapse in the street," he said.

"I only just made it back to my home and crumpled on the sofa where I lay for a few hours with a heavy physical and mental exhaustion that I have never experienced before.

"Over the next few days my health rapidly and frighteningly deteriorated. The headaches became permanent and the tickle in my lungs became a feeling of uncomfortable tightness. Further symptoms, often bizarre, followed in a gathering cascade."

He said that one day when he was out for a short walk, he noticed the fingers on his left hand felt swollen and uncomfortable and soon after he developed arthritic pain in his knuckles.

"I woke up with terrible pains in my hands in the early hours of each morning and soon after most of the joints in my body were clicking and popping loudly with any movement."

He said that in September, he had a couple of nights when he thought he was going to die. He woke up in the early hours with an arm 'completely dead – numb and useless.'

He said his symptoms inproved somewhat in the autumn but he still felt like he was living in a nine month limbo.

Dr Rooksby's brother John said after the inquest that the family was disappointed it had not been possible to ascertain a cause of death, and he called for more research into long Covid and treatments for it.