An 18-year-old woman in Nevada needed three brain surgeries after getting blood clots related to the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine, a spokeswoman for her family said.
Spokeswoman Bret Johnson began making Emma Burkey feel sick about a week after she received the one-dose vaccine early. She was one of six women in the U.S. and the only reported resident in Clark County, which includes Las Vegas, who experienced a severe clotting side effect. One person is dead.
Burkey is in the St. Louis area for the first time. Rose Dominican Hospital in Henderson was treated before being transported to Loma Linda University Medical Center in Southern California for specialized care, Johnson said. Burkey suffered seizures and was placed in an induced coma, reports the Las Vegas Review-Journal. She is now awake and off a respirator. Her parents, Russ and Kathy, briefly visited Burkey every day due to COVID-19 restrictions.
“She’s improving slowly,” Johnson said. The word we got from her parents last night was ‘slow, slow slow’. “
The U.S. government suspended use of the J&J vaccines last week, just a week after European regulators declared such blood clots a rare but possible risk with the AstraZeneca vaccine, a shot similarly made is but not yet approved for use in the US
Federal health agencies have since investigated whether the vaccine could be the cause of blood clots in women, or that providers should be aware of conditions that already exist or medications that could lead to complications.
According to a panel with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Burkey and other women experienced headaches and back pain before the blood clots were discovered, KVVU-TV reports. The panel said Burkey had received Heparin, a blood thinner. The panel and dr. However, Anthony Fauci warns that blood thinners can make the condition worse.
‘The student body and staff here at Coral Academy have heavy hearts, because we now know that one of our own students has experienced adverse side effects from the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. In a ‘one million chance’ that this could happen, we are sad, and yet we are giving our family support during this difficult time, “said Ercan Aydogdu, CEO of Coral Academy in Las Vegas. Burkey was a senior at the school.