SINGAPORE, June 20 — There was no indication that a woman who died earlier this month a day after she had taken her first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine had any allergic reaction to the jab, said the Ministry of Health (MOH) yesterday, adding that the 72-year-old had died of a heart attack.
MOH was responding to media queries about a Facebook post by Andrew Tan, who questioned if the vaccine had caused the death of his mother, Doreen Chan.
In its statement, MOH said that it was alerted to the death of the woman at Sengkang General Hospital on June 4, and that she had been vaccinated with the first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine the day before.
“She had been assessed by trained healthcare personnel to be suitable for Covid-19 vaccination prior to vaccination,” said MOH, which did not name her.
“In line with our protocols, she was also observed on-site for about 30 minutes post-vaccination and was well.”
MOH added that the coroner had determined the cause of the woman’s death to be ischaemic heart disease, after an autopsy was conducted.
“The autopsy found long-standing blockage of the blood vessels supplying blood to the heart muscles, which could not be caused by vaccination. There was also no indications of an allergic reaction to the vaccines,” the ministry said.
“We offer our sincere condolences to the family during this difficult time.”
In an updated statement last night, MOH explained that ischaemic heart disease is the term given to heart problems caused by narrowed heart arteries.
It added that the coroner “is legally separate from and independent” of the ministry and “determines the definitive cause of death”.
“Sengkang General Hospital has reached out to the family to offer assistance. The ministry will also come in to help as needed,” said MOH.
In a separate statement yesterday, Sengkang General Hospital said that the woman was sent to the hospital at about 8.39pm on June 4, after she collapsed at home.
The hospital’s emergency department team commenced immediate resuscitation.
“Unfortunately, despite our best efforts, the patient passed on,” it said, adding that it would also like to express its deepest condolences to the family.
The death of the woman comes after a similar death involving a 57-year-old man, who had also died of a heart attack a day after he had received the first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine.
MOH had said then that based on the assessment by an independent clinical panel, there was no indication that the death was due to the Covid-19 vaccination, and the certified cause was acute myocardial infarction.
In his Facebook post on Wednesday, Tan said that “everything seemed fine” with her mother after her first jab, until about 7pm on the next day, when she collapsed.
Despite attempts by her father and hospital staff to resuscitate her, she died at about 9pm on June 4.
He said that a police investigation officer had asked his family about possible factors leading to her death, such as foul play or pre-existing medical conditions.
He then asked both the police officer and hospital staff on several occasions if his mother’s death could be linked to her vaccination.
When the death certificate was issued, it indicated ischaemic heart disease or heart attack as the cause of death, wrote Tan.
He then asked a counter staff if the death could have been caused by the vaccine but was told that can only be answered by a pathologist.
Tan said he then called the investigating officer and was told he would need to be prepared to wait because inquiries related to Covid-19 currently have “a four-month waiting line”.
“Even though the anomaly was the vaccine, I knew I was not going to get my answer,” he wrote in his post.
He also called on others to share his account and for those who had similar experiences to contact him as he hopes “to seek the truth”.
He said that he was not advocating that people should not be vaccinated, adding that he was fully vaccinated with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
Contacted by TODAY yesterday, Tan, 48, said that his father had reached out to MOH, the Health Sciences Authority as well as to the Member of Parliament (MP) in his area, Sun Xue Ling, for help.
According to him, his father had met Sun, who is MP for Punggol West, yesterday, but that the meeting was “mostly investigative” and that she would help connect the family to MOH.
TODAY has reached out to Sun for comments.
Tan, an e-commerce trainer, said that his mother had been diagnosed with ischemic heart disease only recently in April, and was given medication for her condition.
“My mom is very diligent with medication and always goes for regular checkups,” said Tan.
“She doesn’t eat any unhealthy food and is very careful with her diet… she is a perfectly functioning healthy, normal woman.”
He is also planning to apply for financial aid under the vaccine injury financial assistance programme for Covid-19 vaccination (Vifap), which provides payouts to those who may be adversely affected by their inoculation, but has not yet done so.
He added that his father is wheelchair-bound, and the family is hoping for some form of compensation, as one of his caretakers was his wife.
“My mom has been his pillar of support for all the while he has been wheelchair-bound,” Tan said. He added that his father’s support system has “gone haywire” since the death of his wife. — TODAY
