LAS VEGAS (AP) – An 18-year-old woman in Nevada who had seizures after receiving the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine has had three brain surgeries for blood clots, a spokesperson for her family said.
Emma Burkey started feeling sick about a week after receiving the single-dose vaccine early this month, spokesman Bret Johnson said. She was one of six women in the US and the only reported resident of Clark County, including Las Vegas, to experience a serious side effect of blood clotting. One person died.
Burkey was first treated at St. Rose Dominican Hospital in Henderson before being flown to Loma Linda University Medical Center in Southern California for specialized care, Johnson said. Burkey was pulled out of an induced coma and taken off a ventilator, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported. Her parents, Russ and Kathy, visited Burkey briefly every day due to COVID-19 restrictions.
“She’s slowly improving,” said Johnson. The word we got from her parents last night was ‘slow, slow slow’. “
The US government suspended use of the J&J vaccinations last week, just a week after European regulators stated that such clots pose a rare but possible risk with the AstraZeneca vaccine, an injection made in a similar way but still is not approved for use in the US.
Federal health agencies have since been investigating whether the vaccine could cause blood clots in women, or whether health care providers should be aware of pre-existing conditions or medications that could lead to complications.
A panel with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Burkey and other women had headaches and back pain prior to the discovery of blood clots, KVVU-TV reported. The panel said Burkey had been given heparin, a blood thinner. However, the panel and Dr. Anthony Fauci warned that blood thinners can make the condition worse.
“The students and staff here at Coral Academy have a heavy heart because we now know that one of our own students has experienced adverse side effects from the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. At a ‘one in a million’ chance of this happening, we are heartbroken, but pledge our support to the family at this difficult time, ”said Ercan Aydogdu, CEO of Coral Academy Las Vegas. Burkey was a senior at the school.