A 39-year-old single mother in Utah with no underlying medical condition died four days after receiving her second dose of Moderna COVID-19 vaccine, according to a report.
Kassidi Kurill, the mother of one from Ogden, received the vaccine due to her work as a surgical technician for several plastic surgeons, KUTV reported.
“It simply came to our notice then. In fact, she told us all, “It’s okay, you should all take it,” her father, Alfred Hawley, told reporters.
Kurill experienced an arm pain after Moderna’s first blow, but had no other side effects.
But things took a tragic turn after receiving the second dose on February 1.
“He came early and said his heart was pounding and he felt he had to get to the emergency room,” Hawley said.
When they reached the emergency room, Kurill threw up. Hawley, a retired fighter pilot, told doctors his daughter had just received his second blow.
“They did a blood test and they came back immediately and said she was very, very sick and her liver was not working,” he told KUTV.
Kurill’s older sister, Kristin, who lives in Arizona, said she knew her sister went to the hospital, but the speed with which she deteriorated was “so unexpected.”
She thought her sister would get an IV and return home in an hour, but Hawley knew they wouldn’t be home soon.
“It was a total shock and I was really afraid to tell my wife,” he told reporters.
Kurill was soon transported to Intermountain Medical Center in Murray, a trauma center, because her liver was failing and a transplant was considered the best chance of survival.
Kristin jumped on the first flight to Utah, but was not allowed to enter the hospital due to coronavirus protocols, so she waited with her 9-year-old sister, Emilia’s daughter, as the family hoped for a miracle.
Kurill’s parents volunteered to donate a portion of their liver, but they never had a chance to give the saving gift when their daughter’s liver, kidneys, and heart stopped.
He died 30 hours after arriving at the hospital.
An autopsy was performed on Kurill’s body, but the state doctor’s office could not comment on the case because of privacy laws, according to KUTV.
Dr. Erik Christensen, Utah’s chief physician, told the station that proof of vaccine injury as a cause of death almost never happens.
“Did he get this vaccine?” I think it would be very difficult to prove in the autopsy, “he said.
Christensen said he could think of only one case in which a vaccine could be listed as the cause of death in an autopsy report – an immediate case of anaphylaxis, a severe allergic reaction in which a person died almost instantly after which was inoculated.
“In short, it would be difficult for us to say definitively that this is the vaccine,” he said, adding that a more likely outcome would be a lack of answers – or an “incomplete autopsy”.
He added: “Almost any vaccine or anything you treat someone, when you inject something, has the potential to have a negative result.”
An autopsy could also identify a cause of death that the family did not know about, including undiagnosed pneumonia, cancer, or an unknown heart condition.
Kurill’s family hopes to receive answers, but realizes that they may never know for sure what they claimed in the life of a loved one.
While vaccine side effects are common, the resulting deaths are extremely rare, according to a Fox News report.
According to the CDC vaccine adverse event reporting system, approximately 92 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine were administered in the United States between December 14 and March 8.
Of the 92 million, VAERS received 1,637 death reports (0.0018%) among people who received a jab, the network reported.
To date, VAERS has not detected patterns in the cause of death that would indicate a safety issue with COVID-19 vaccines, the CDC says on its website.
Kurill’s daughter – whose father is a civil servant and National Guard member traveling for work – will continue to live with her grandparents.
Emilia, who is known as Millie, was the one who wanted to tell her mother’s story.
Since then, he has watched his grandfather decide to get his second dose of vaccine.
“Millie begged me not to,” said Hawley, 69, with diabetes. “There is always a risk.”