Student dies after receiving second Covid-19 vaccine shot
A Phang Nga Community College student who developed blood clots after receiving her second Covid-19 vaccine shot has died of a haemorrhagic stroke following brain surgery. As reported by the Bangkok Post, the student, 20 year old Ketsiree Kongkaew, who had had her left leg amputated, died on Monday morning at Songklanagarind Hospital in Hat Yai.
Having first received the Sinovac vaccine, Ketsiree was reported to have suffered a blockage of a limb artery after receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine as her second shot. Complaining of a fever and chest pains around three days after receiving the shot, she was initially diagnosed with a bladder infection by a doctor at Phangnga Hospital.
After experiencing severe pain in her left leg, she was subsequently referred to Surat Thani Hospital, with an X-ray revealing blood clots requiring urgent surgery. With her condition continuing to worsen, she was first transferred to Krabi Hospital, then Songklanagarind Hospital, where the decision was made to amputate her leg.
Songklanagarind Hospital had received permission from her relatives to perform surgery, with a doctor advising that she had experienced bleeding in her brain. Ketsiree – who remained unconscious following the operation, and who was reliant on a ventilator – was pronounced dead on Monday after suffering the stroke. According to the report, doctors said the haemorrhage was a side effect of drugs used to treat clots.
The Bangkok Post has reported that the National Health Security Office has provided Ketsiree’s family 400,000 baht in financial assistance.
The World Health Organisation notes via its website that the risk of blood clots is far higher from Covid-19 itself than from the AstraZeneca vaccine. With the vaccine, the WHO advises that as of July 15, 2021, data shows that these symptoms occur in about four to six people out of every million vaccinated (varying based on age, sex and geographical location).
SOURCES: Bangkok Post | WHO
