A 10-year-old girl is in a critical condition due to suffering a heart attack just after receiving a dose of the Pfizer vaccine, according to reports.
Luisa Petenuci from São Paolo, Brazil was rushed to hospital suffering from a cardiac arrest 12 hours after getting the jab in Lençóis Paulista.
Lençóis Paulista has ordered a halt on all child vaccinations while authorities investigate the case.
The father of the child, police officer Claudimar Petenuci, said his daughter collapsed in his lap and stopped breathing after complaining of a rapid heartbeat.
Mr. Petenuci shared the horrific incident in an audio recording that went viral on social media.
“She took the vaccine in the morning, and at 9 o’clock at night she came to my room saying that her heart was beating very hard,” the police officer said [translated].
“When I put my hand, it was something unbelievable.
“She fainted on my lap.”
More from Rede TV [translated]:
The father recalls that he tried to provide first aid to his daughter, and took her to receive medical care.
“I handed over my dead daughter, trying to massage, breathe, but she only managed to return with defibrillator.”
During the voice message, Claudimar still says he does not want this situation for any father.
“I want no father to go through what I’m going through.”
The girl was part of the priority group of children who could receive the vaccine because she has asthma, and had pneumonia more than twice in the last year.
She took the Pfizer immunizer for children, approved by Anvisa on December 16.
Luisa was taken to a private health network for medical care, where she received first aid and was transferred to the Pediatric ICU at Unimed Hospital in Bauru on Friday.
She will undergo MRI examinations this week as recommended by her anesthesiologist, according to Covid World.
“I am anxiously awaiting the result of this exam so that I can take care of my daughter and see the path we are going to follow,” says the father.
“Only this resonance that she will do on Monday will be able to give us the final diagnosis.”
Following the incident, the municipality of Lençóis Paulista suspended for 7 days the vaccination of children aged between 5 and 11 years old. However, the vaccination for adults will continue as normal.
The Government of São Paulo and the Ministry of Health claimed that the cardiac arrest was not caused by the COVID vaccine and the minor had a ‘previously unknown’ heart problem.
More from 247 news [translated]:
The health authorities of the Brazilian state of Sao Paulo ruled out this Thursday the relationship between the anticovid vaccine and cardiac arrest suffered by a minor of 10 years 12 hours after having received the immunizer and that led to the suspension of childhood vaccination in an entire city.
“It was concluded that it is not an adverse event to the vaccine. There is no relationship with the immunizer supplied. What was discovered, unfortunately, was a problem in the heart (of the minor) of which the parents were not aware, “said the Secretary of Health of Sao Paulo, Jean Gorinchteyn, at a press conference.
“From the moment we were officially informed of the occurrence, which was a cardiorespiratory arrest in a female minor 12 hours after being vaccinated, we immediately set up a technical-scientific committee of 10 specialists to assess what put that girl at risk”, detailed Gorinchteyn.
