According to a report, a 39-year-old single woman in Utah died without underlying medical conditions four days after receiving her second dose of Moderna COVID-19 vaccine.
Kassidi Kurill, a mother of one of Ogden, received the vaccine because of her work as a surgical technician for several plastic surgeons, reports KUTV.
“It was all right with her. In fact, she told us all, ‘It’s good, you have to get it all,’ ‘her father, Alfred Hawley, told the outlet.
Kurill had a sore arm after the first beat of Moderna, but had no other side effects.
But things took a tragic turn after she received her second dose on February 1st.
“She came early and said her heart was racing and she felt she had to go to the emergency room,” Hawley said.
When they arrived at the ER, Kurill vomited. Hawley, a retired fighter pilot, told doctors his daughter had just received her second shot.
“They did a blood test and immediately came back and said that she is very, very ill, and that her liver is not functioning,” he told KUTV.
Kurill’s older sister, Kristin, who lives in Arizona, said she knew her sister was going to the hospital, but the speed with which she deteriorated was ‘so unexpected’.
She thought her sister would get an IV and be back in an hour, but Hawley knew they would not be going home anytime soon.
“It was a total shock, and I was even scared to tell my wife,” he told the news agency.
Kurill was soon flown to the Intermountain Medical Center in Murray, a trauma center, because her liver was weakening and a transplant was believed to be her best chance of survival.
Kristin jumped on the first flight to Utah, but due to coronavirus protocols, she was not admitted to the hospital. So she waited with her sister’s daughter Emilia (9) because the family was hoping for a miracle.
Kurill’s parents voluntarily donated a portion of their livers, but never got the chance to offer the life-saving gift when their daughter’s liver, kidneys and heart closed.
She died 30 hours after arriving at the hospital.
According to KUTV, an autopsy was performed on Kurill’s body, but the state’s medical examiner could not comment on the case.
Dr. Erik Christensen, chief medical examiner in Utah, told the station that 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 said he could think of only one case in which a vaccine could be listed as the cause of death during a post-mortem report – an immediate case of anaphylaxis, a severe allergic reaction, where someone died almost immediately after being vaccinated .
“Shortly afterwards, it will be difficult for us to say definitively that it is the vaccine,” he said, adding that a more likely outcome would be a lack of answers – or an ‘incomplete autopsy’.
He added: “Almost every vaccine or something you do treat can have a negative outcome if you inject something.”
An autopsy can also identify a cause of death of which the family was not aware, including undiagnosed pneumonia, cancer or an unknown heart condition.
The Kurill family hopes to get answers, but realizes that they will never know for sure what their loved one’s life demanded.
While side effects of the vaccine are common, deaths as a result are extremely rare, according to a Fox News report.
According to the CDC’s Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, approximately 92 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines were administered in the United States between December 14 and March 8.
Of the 92 million, VAERS received 1,637 deaths (0.0018%) among people who got a jab, the network reported.
“To date, VAERS has not detected patterns in causes of death that would indicate a safety issue with COVID-19 vaccines,” the CDC said on its website.
Kurill’s daughter – whose father is a civil servant and a member of the National Guard who goes to work – will continue to live with her grandparents.
Emilia, known as Millie, wanted to tell the story of her mother.
She has since seen her grandfather decide to get his second dose of vaccination.
“Millie begged me not to do it,” said Hawley, a 69-year-old man with diabetes. “There’s always a risk.”