Washington Examiner - Political News and Conservative Analysis About Congress, the President, and the Federal Government By Michael Lee
A 43-year-old man suffered a stroke just hours after receiving the Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine.
“He’s a young, healthy 43-year-old, and I immediately thought it, and I said be sure to tell the doctors he took that J & J vaccine and that, to me, is what caused his stroke,” said Brad Malagarie’s aunt and boss, Celeste Foster O’Keefe, after he suffered the stroke.
Malagarie, a father of seven, spent the morning at his office before breaking around noon to go receive the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. He returned to work a short time later, but within three hours, coworkers found him unresponsive at his desk.
“They called me and said he had that vaccine and something is wrong, we think it’s a stroke,” O’Keefe said.
JOHNSON & JOHNSON VACCINE PAUSE COMES JUST AS VACCINATION CAMPAIGN IS SUPPOSED TO RAMP UP
Doctors confirmed Malagarie had a stroke after he was rushed to the hospital, finding a blood clot had lodged in his left middle cerebral artery.
O’Keefe said the family believes that the vaccine caused the stroke, noting that Malagarie’s only health issue before the incident was high blood pressure that he controlled with medication.
The story comes just days after the Food and Drug Administration recommended pausing doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine after six patients had experienced blood clots shortly after receiving the vaccine.
“Today FDA and @CDCgov issued a statement regarding the Johnson & Johnson #COVID19 vaccine. We are recommending a pause in the use of this vaccine out of an abundance of caution,” the FDA announced Tuesday.
Two more cases of blood clotting were reported Wednesday, bringing the total number to eight as government officials have not yet said when they plan to resume administering doses of the drug.
But the pause came too late for Malagarie, who is now hospitalized in critical but stable condition with his wife by his side.
“He can’t talk now, and he can’t walk. He’s paralyzed on the right side. He knows who we are, and he will just cry when he sees us,” O’Keefe said.
Doctors still aren’t sure how well Malagarie will recover but say it will take at least a year of rehab once he is discharged from the hospital.
“At least we want him to be able to communicate, to be able to walk and talk again, even if it’s not perfect,” O’Keefe said.
