Nursing home resident goes into shock after receiving both doses of the vaccine in one day.
Ohio resident Victor Smith, 91, is recovering in a hospital after mistakenly being injected with both rounds of the coronavirus vaccination in the same day. He is not certain on the day he got two shots, according to his daughter, Dawn Smith Theodore. However, she said, “They pretty much told me he was not going to make it.”
Theodore recalled that her father, an amputee, got his first dose of vaccine January 22 and became extremely fatigued, falling afterwards. He was rushed to Fort Hamilton Hospital and later transferred to Jamestowne Rehabilitation. Smith was then scheduled to receive the second shot on February 25, in accordance with the required wait time. “He seemed fine when he got back to the rehab facility,” she added, saying her father had returned to good health.
However, a tragic mix-up then occurred. A city firefighter arrived to give regularly scheduled COVID vaccinations to the rehab’s residents. “I guess a city firefighter came in and said they have a shot for Victor, and the nurse said, ‘Victor Smith?’ and he said, ‘Yes,’ so they gave him the room number and sent him to room 202, which is where my dad was,” Theodore explained. However, the wrong Victor was vaccinated, and he went into shock.
“His blood pressure at that point was 86 over 47 and so they could not administer Lasix, which would help the fluid around the lungs because his blood pressure was too low,” she said.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released a statement in January, saying, “The available data continue to support the use of two specified doses of each authorized vaccine at specified intervals. For the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, the interval is 21 days between the first and second dose. And for the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine, the interval is 28 days between the first and second dose…What we have seen is that the data in the firms’ submissions regarding the first dose is commonly being misinterpreted. In the phase 3 trials, 98% of participants in the Pfizer-BioNTech trial and 92% of participants in the Moderna trial received two doses of the vaccine at either a three- or four-week interval, respectively.”
The City of Hamilton, and Community First Solutions, owner of the rehabilitation facility, issued a joint statement after Smith was hospitalized, saying, “An incident occurred where a City of Hamilton resident inadvertently received two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine on the same day. The individual, 91, was a patient of Jamestowne Rehabilitation where all vaccinations are completed by outside parties who are trained and appropriately certified, in this case the city of Hamilton Fire Department. Jamestowne staff recognized the patient’s signs of distress and responded immediately. The patient was transported to the hospital and the family was promptly contacted. Both Jamestowne and the city of Hamilton Fire Department have begun investigations into the incident. Our thoughts are with the patient and his family as he continues his recovery.”
Sources:
How Long Can You Wait Between Covid-19 Coronavirus Vaccine Doses?
Ohio Man, 91, Hospitalized After Getting Two COVID Vaccinations in One Day
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