Cardiac Tamponade After COVID-19 Vaccination
Potentially Fatal Complication Demands Assiduous Evaluation and Echocardiography
By Peter A. McCullough, MD, MPH
I am concerned that bias amongst editors and publishers to reject manuscripts describing adverse outcomes with COVID-19 vaccination is resulting in relatively few papers that could be describing a large number of real patients with adverse outcomes. Dr. Hryniewicki et al, in 2021 described a potentially fatal case of pericarditis (fluid around the heart) which was so severe it was crushing the heart and could have caused death at home (pericardial tamponade).
This occurred in an 18-year old man 3 weeks after he took the first dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine. In his case COVID-19 respiratory illness had a negligible risk of hospitalization or death, so any vaccine complication would be considered unacceptable. His first trip the the Emergency Department revealed an ECG consistent with pericarditis, no myocarditis by troponin testing, and no pericardial effusion by echocardiogram. Ten days later he required hospital admission for a large accumulation of pericardial fluid, pericardial drainage of 600 ml, was again released to home. A week later was readmitted again with persistent symptoms, and was given additional medications including corticosteroids and a plan to give rilonacept, an expensive interleukin-1 inhibitor to reduce the inflammation. The teaching points in his case are: 1) patient had to be persistent and seek care three times for this potentially fatal problem, 2) repeated echocardiography was a key diagnostic test, 3) patient is now set up for chronic pericarditis and a lifelong problem of scarring within the chest all for an unnecessary COVID-19 vaccine.
I wonder how many COVID-19 vaccine deaths among young people had an office or emergency department visit in the days before death. What was the cardiovascular evaluation? In this case it took a concerned patient and assiduous doctors, otherwise he would have died at home. So if you or someone you know has had chest pain, shortness of breath, increased heart rate, and low grade fever after even one dose of the mRNA vaccine, be sure to seek medical care and demand ECG, blood tests, and echocardiography. Be persistent if symptoms fail to resolve.
If you find “Courageous Discourse” enjoyable and useful to your endeavors, please subscribe as a paying or founder member to support our efforts in helping you engage in these discussions with family, friends, and your extended circles.
It's not a vaccine. At best it's a gene therapy being used as a weapon. Worst case it's a bioweapon. But for the love of God and all that's holy please stop calling it a vaccine? Please?
My daughter, age 36, lifelong athlete (D1 volleyball player), got pericarditis within 3 months of getting the Pfizer shot 12/2020. Her doctor concluded, after extensive cardiac testing, concluded my daughter had a reaction to the vaccine.