The death of a Florida doctor, who suffered a hemorrhagic stroke just weeks after receiving the COVID-19 vaccine, has triggered an investigation.
It’s not yet clear if Dr. Gregory Michael’s death on Monday was linked to the jab, which he received on Dec. 18.
Darren Caprara, the Director of Operations for the Miami-Dade Medical Examiner’s office, said local investigators are working with the Florida Department of Health and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to determine whether or not the coronavirus vaccine caused his lack of platelets, which ultimately resulted in a fatal stroke.
Michael, an OB-GYN at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami Beach, was 56.
The CDC in an emailed statement to CNN on Wednesday said it “is aware of a reported death in Florida of an individual who received the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine about two weeks before passing away.”
Michael’s wife, Heidi Neckelmann, said in a Facebook post that her husband sought out treatment just three days after getting inoculated. At the time he’d grown concerned over a series of dots on his skin that would typically indicate internal bleeding.
She said a team of doctors for weeks worked to bring Michael’s platelet count back up, but were ultimately unsuccessful.
“He was a very healthy 56 year old, loved by everyone in the community delivered hundreds of healthy babies and worked tireless through the pandemic,” Neckelmann wrote.
Pfizer, which developed the vaccine alongside German partner BioNTech, in a statement to USA Today said it was also aware of Michael’s death, but stopped short of blaming the coronavirus treatment.
“We are actively investigating this case, but we don’t believe at this time that there is any direct connection to the vaccine,” the New York-based drugmaker said.
