SALT LAKE CITY (KUTV) – During a KUTV investigation into side effects of the COVID-19 vaccine and where to report it, we found that four deaths were reported by Utah families and their caregivers at the CDC’s system for vaccine side effects reporting.
One case came to light, a 39-year-old single from Ogden who died four days after her second dose of Modner COVID-19 vaccine. Her family, now awaiting an autopsy, held a celebration of life for her this past weekend.
Kassidi Kurill, by all accounts, was healthy, happy and “had more energy” than just anyone else around her. Her family told 2News she had no known health problems or conditions.
Alfred Hawley, a retired fighter pilot from Hill Air Force Base, is a military man who has known risk and loss all his life. He took it all in stride – until now.
An hour before his daughter’s celebration of his life this past Saturday, he sat down to talk about his little girl, the one who always wore makeup to cover the freckles he loved so much.
“I’m in a state in my life where I feel good (emotion),” he said as he wiped a tear from his cheek; not the first and not the last.
“She was the one who promised to take care of me.”
The death of his youngest daughter comes from nowhere in a year where this family has already suffered unimaginable grief, with three funerals before Kurill in the past 370 days.
Four days after Kurill’s second dose of COVID-19 vaccine, she was gone – dead before most of her family could say goodbye.
Hawley wakes up that Thursday morning with his daughter asking for help.
“She came early and said her heart was racing and she felt she had to go to the emergency room,” Hawley said.
Kurill and her 9-year-old daughter, Emilia, lived with her parents. They have been one family under the same roof since Emilia was born. Mom and Dad, Grandma and Grandpa are always close by when they are needed.
Hawley, now retired, spent a lot of time with his girls. Kurill, he said, “immediately became ill, hurt at the lap site, then started getting sick, started complaining that she drank a lot of fluids but could not pee, and felt a little better the next day.”
It was her second shot; the first has a sore arm but no real side effects or problems. Kurill was the first in the family to receive the vaccine. She was a surgical technician for several local plastic surgeons, and the vaccine was part of the work. She got up to get the shot without hesitation, her family said.
“It was all right with her. In fact, she told us all, ‘It’s good, you should get it all.’ ‘
Kurill’s older sister Kristin, who is often confused as her twin, lives in Arizona. The distance did not matter much, they visited regularly and talked by telephone every day.
The day her sister received the second COVID-19 shot, it was normally out of their conversations throughout the day, Kristin said.
“They went shopping. “She was good and did not feel so good that night,” she said.
Kristin said they were not worried about her sister because “all of her work had flu-like symptoms, so we thought it was normal.”
Kurill gets the second shot on February 1st. While she was in bed all day Tuesday and Wednesday, she only knew on Thursday morning that something was wrong. She woke up early, got ready and asked her father to drive her to the local emergency room, where they arrived at 7am.
As soon as they walk in the door, Kurill throws up. Minutes later, questions were asked about what makes her so sick.
Her father remembers doctors asking the question after the question, “Is there an explanation?”
Hawley said he told them Kurill had just had her second shot.
“They did a blood test and immediately came back and said she was very, very sick, and that her liver was not functioning,” Hawley said.
Kristin, still in Arizona, knew her sister was going to the hospital, but the speed of what was happening was ‘so unexpected’. She thought her sister would get an IV with fluids and be home again within an hour.
Hawley, in the ER with his daughter, knew they would not be going home anytime soon.
“It was a total shock, and I was even scared to tell my wife,” he said. It was a call he did not want to make.
Kurill was flown to Intermountain Medical Center in Murray, a trauma center where they had the ability to perform transplants if necessary. Her liver failed and a transplant, according to doctors, was her best option to survive.
Then Kristin gets the call that is being transferred to her sister. She jumped on the first flight to Utah, but when she landed, she was not admitted to the hospital due to COVID-19 protocols. She is waiting with Kurill’s daughter Emilia and hopes for a miracle.
Both Kurill’s parents offered to donate a portion of their liver. They knew that if they were not a match, they could be part of a trade where someone else who was a match could help their daughter.
They never got the chance to offer the life-saving gift. Doctors are doing everything in their power to get Kurill stable, but nothing seems to be working. Hawley said his daughter’s liver, kidney and heart closed.
Hawley, who was with his daughter when she died, said it made no sense.
She died, he said, 30 hours after they got into the emergency.
An autopsy was recommended by doctors and the family agrees. Kurill’s body was moved to the Utah State Medical Examiner in Taylorsville, where a full autopsy was performed.
The State Medical Investigator’s Office could not comment on the case due to privacy laws, but spoke to 2News about when an autopsy will provide answers to a family reporting a death vaccine.
Dr. Erik Christensen, chief medical examiner in Utah, said evidence of vaccine injury as a cause of death almost never happens.
‘Did the vaccine cause it? “I think it will be very difficult to demonstrate during an autopsy,” he said.
Christensen can only think of one case where you would see a vaccine as the cause of death in an official autopsy report, and that would be in an immediate case of anaphylaxis – one where someone received the vaccine and died almost immediately, he said.
“Shortly afterwards, it will be difficult for us to say definitively that it is the vaccine.”
A more likely outcome is a lack of answers or an ‘incomplete autopsy’.
An autopsy, he said, could provide answers to a family if no illness or red flags were found. As Christensen explained, “that we see no competing cause of death.” The lack of answers can help them understand if the vaccine is a possible cause.
An autopsy can also identify the cause of death for which the family does not know, where doctors find undiagnosed pneumonia, cancer or an unknown heart condition. Christensen said there are many people – even young people – who walk around with major health issues of which they simply do not know.
According to her family, Kurill had no medical conditions. Her medical records in the past are likely to be used in her autopsy, which can take up to three months, depending on initial reports and toxicological reports.
Kurill’s family is hopeful that they will get answers, but knows that they will never know for sure what their daughter and sister’s lives demanded.
Kristin said when she looked back, her sister was “good the day she got the chance and then everything changed.”
Her father agreed. He said Kurill was “healthy and well – then she took the chance.” He points to “Occam’s Razor, where the simplest answer is probably probably correct.”
Until he gets other data, Hawley said he “must believe there was something wrong with the shot.”
Kurill’s death will leave a huge void. Her 9-year-old daughter will continue to live with her grandparents. The young girl’s father, a civil servant and member of the National Guard, travels to work and has offered several tours overseas.
Her family has compiled a memorial account in Kassidi Kurill’s name:
You can donate at America First Credit Union
- PO Box 9199, Ogden Ut 84409
- Routing # AFCU 324377516
- Account # 9119439
A GoFundMe has also been set up for Emelia.
Emilia, or ‘Millie’ as her family calls her, was the one who wanted to tell the story of her mother. She was forced to grow up in the four weeks since her mother’s death. She saw her grandfather decide to get his second dose of COVID-19 vaccine.
“Millie begged me not to do that,” Hawley said. It was not an easy decision. He had his first shot shortly after his daughter.
“There is always a risk,” he said.
For him, “as a 69-year-old diabetic, it made sense to take the second survey and get 95% immunity.” After a long pause, he said, “if you’re young, it might not make sense.” Ultimately, you have to make your own decision. ‘
In Utah, Kurill’s is only one of four deaths reported, possibly related to the vaccine. Three other deaths reported are all in their 80s in Utahns. With the information available to the public, it appears that in their cases no autopsies were ordered.
Christensen, the medical examiner, notes that vaccine deaths are possible and do occur.
‘Almost every vaccine or something you do treat someone if you inject something can have a negative outcome. “I am sure that FATHERS can verify that other vaccines have led to death,” Christensen said.
According to him, the deaths are “vanishingly rare compared to the lives they save.”
Currently, 1,637 families or caregivers nationwide have reported deaths related to VAERS.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention currently states that no deaths are attributed to COVID-19 vaccines:
“More than 92 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines were administered in the United States from December 14, 2020 to March 8, 2021. During this time, FATHERS received 1,637 deaths (0.0018%) among people taking COVID 19 received. vaccine. CDC and FDA physicians review each case of deaths once notified, and CDC requests medical records to further assess reports. A review of available clinical information, including death certificates, autopsies, and medical records, showed no evidence that vaccination contributed to the deaths of patients. CDC and FDA will continue to investigate reports of adverse events, including deaths, reported to VAERS. website.
2News will follow up on Kurill’s family when the autopsy report is completed. In the state of Utah, these reports are not public and can only be viewed when the family chooses to share the information. The medical examiner could not say due to HIPPA whether the autopsy would be sent automatically to the CDC and the FDA.
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