The family of an OC man who died days after vaccination say they are still in favor of the vaccine

The family of an Orange County man who died days after receiving a second dose of COVID-19 vaccine say they are still believing in vaccination and are still hoping for better answers about its cause of death.

Tim Zook, a 60-year-old X-ray technologist at South Coast Global Medical Center in Santa Ana, received his second dose of Pfizer vaccine on January 5th. A few hours later, he had trouble breathing and an upset stomach. He was admitted to the hospital and died four days later.

His cause of death is still being investigated. The Orange County coroner’s office says if it determines that his death is related to the vaccine, it will notify the OC Health Care Agency.

Zook’s family said he has high blood pressure and is slightly overweight, but he is a proponent of the vaccine.

Tim’s widow, Rochelle Zook, says she is not ready to attribute the death of her husband to the vaccine at this stage.

“We do not know,” Rochelle Zook said. “I do not place any blame on Pfizer or any other pharmaceutical company. We just want to know the truth.”

Tim Zook was a proponent of vaccination and expressed his excitement about receiving a dose where he worked at South Coast Global Medical Center.

But a few hours later, his wife says, he complained of abdominal pain and breathing problems, and so he went to the emergency room.

“I told him, is that the result of taking the second vaccine? And he said no, no, no, not at all. Don’t worry about it.”

His wife says a CAT scan revealed congestive heart failure, but other tests showed he had no valve problems or artery blockage. COVID-19 tests came back negative, and breathing became worse. Eventually he was intubated.

He was then transferred to UCI Medical Center, where she began to weaken, according to his kidneys.

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“He was coding for the fourth time blues and then Tim lost his life and that’s how it’s going,” she said.

While the coroner was trying to determine a cause of death, which could take months, the family was surprised.

“We do not know if it was the vaccine and if there were any other underlying conditions that none of us knew about.”

Either way, they say they still believe in the vaccine.

“If he were to do it all over again, I know my husband, we know Tim, he’s going to do it all over again and he wants us all to take it.”

Pfizer says, “Serious side effects, including non-vaccine-related deaths, will unfortunately occur at a similar rate as in the general population.”

Meanwhile, CDC data on both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines show that there were approximately 372 reports of non-serious side effects per million doses administered, and 45 serious side effects.

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