After 11 grueling months on the front lines at South Coast Global Medical Center in Santa Ana, Tim Zook finally felt hopeful.
The 60-year-old X-ray technologist saw COVID-19 positive patients struggling to breathe, families devastated by loss and struggling with his own fears to bring the deadly virus home to his family. After receiving his second dose of Pfizer vaccine, he immediately shared his enthusiasm on Facebook.
“Never been so excited to get a chance,” he wrote on Jan. 5, sharing a photo of a patch on his arm and his completed vaccination card for COVID-19.
“He worked tirelessly all year to save the lives of people affected by COVID,” said his wife, Rochelle Zook, of Orange. “He came home very emotional all year, sad about the kind of death he saw in this community. But he never gave up. He believed to stop the virus, you have to take the vaccine.”
A few hours after his second dose, he had an upset stomach and breathing problems. By 3:30 p.m., his colleagues brought him to the emergency room to be examined. He texted his wife to let her know he would be home late.
“Should I be worried?” Rochelle sent it back.
“No, absolutely not,” he replied.
She asked if he thought it was a reaction to the vaccine. He said no.
Tests for COVID came negative. A doctor diagnosed him with congestive heart failure. Zook, who was still struggling to breathe, was put on oxygen and then a BiPAP machine to send air into his lungs. He told his wife he would be home the next day.
Zook’s health continued to decline. Less than two days later, he had shortness of breath and had to be placed in a ventilator. He was transferred to the UCI Medical Center in Orange, where his kidney began to fail. On January 9 – four days after walking into the emergency room at South Coast Global – Zook had to be revived three times in a matter of hours. He died that afternoon.
Zook’s family does not yet know if the vaccine played a role in his death, which is being investigated by federal and local agencies. His death was first reported by the Orange County Registry. Rochelle Zook insists that the story of her husband should not discourage anyone from getting the vaccine. She is determined that he would get the shots again if he could do so.
“Our message is to take the vaccine. That’s what Tim would say,” she said. “This is how we are going to reduce this horrific pandemic.”
The Orange County coroner’s are still trying to determine Zook’s exact cause of death. A spokesman for the sheriff’s department in Orange County said the OC Health Care Agency would be notified if it was determined there was a link to the vaccine.
Any reports of deaths after vaccination are also being investigated by the US Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The agencies are working with healthcare providers to obtain medical history and clinical follow-up information as part of their investigation, FDA spokesman Abby Capobianco wrote in a statement.
“It is important to note that the report of an adverse event is not evidence that a vaccine caused the event,” she added.
Without any concrete answers, Zook’s family hopes that public health institutions and pharmaceutical companies that develop the vaccines will do more research to reduce the detrimental effects of the vaccine.
“We want to urge pharmaceutical companies to look into his death and do more research,” said Ken Polanco, Rochelle Zook’s cousin. “If we can save one life, it’s worth it.”
A spokesman for Pfizer and BioNTech said the company was aware of Zook’s death and was also reviewing what happened.
“Our immediate thoughts are with the grieving family. We are closely monitoring all such incidents and gathering relevant information to share with global regulators,” the company said in a statement. “Based on ongoing safety reviews conducted by Pfizer, BioNTech and healthcare authorities, [the vaccine] maintains a positive benefit-risk profile for the prevention of COVID-19 infections. Serious side effects, including non-vaccine-related deaths, will unfortunately occur at a similar rate as in the general population. “
The FDA has approved Pfizer and Moderna vaccines for emergency use following a well-established vaccine safety evaluation procedure. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, cases of anaphylaxis – a severe allergic reaction to shots that can be life-threatening – were extremely rare.
Although no deaths have been linked to the vaccines, officers are investigating at least two other cases of people dying after receiving a dose.
In Florida, a 56-year-old doctor developed a severe form of a condition known as acute immune thrombocytopenia, which prevents his blood from clotting properly after receiving the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine. He died 16 days later. Officials are also investigating the death of a person in Placer County last week who recently received a COVID-19 vaccine.
Dr. Robert Kim-Farley, a medical epidemiologist and infectious disease expert at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, said it was important to realize that just because an adverse event after a vaccination does not necessarily mean that the vaccine was not caused. .
“There could be other reasons for someone to get sick, even seriously ill, and die,” he said. “You have to quantify what the risks are, and with COVID vaccines we are in the vicinity of about five serious side effects like anaphylaxis for every million doses that are very low.”
Kim-Farley stressed that vaccines developed are safe, effective and necessary to control the spread of infectious diseases.
“They are not 100% safe and also not 100% effective, but the most important thing to always consider is what will happen if there are no vaccinations. The current pandemic is exactly that,” he said.
While waiting for answers, Rochelle Zook clings to happier memories of her husband of 34 years – a food lover who enjoyed cooking a piece of red wine from Sonoma with her and their three grown sons.
Over Christmas, the family drove to Bakersfield, where their eldest son, Aaron, recently bought a home with his fiancée. Tim Zook, who usually did all the cooking, was delighted when his son himself performed a beautiful holiday dinner for the group.
“He was so proud to see his eldest son move forward,” Rochelle Zook said. “I saw Tim just as happy for the first time in a long time. We just cling to it.”
This story originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times.