A Mississippi man who experienced a blood clot after receiving the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine was paralyzed on one side of his body and could not speak, his family said.
Brad Malagarie, 43, of St. Martin suffered a stroke shortly after going out last week to get a single dose, WLOX reported.
“They called me and told me he had that vaccine and something was wrong, we think it was a stroke,” his aunt, Celeste Foster O’Keefe, told the outlet.
The father of seven children was rushed to hospital, where they determined he had a stroke as a result of a blood clot in the brain, the outlet reported.
“I told you not to tell the doctors that he got that J&J vaccine and that, for me, it caused his stroke,” his aunt said.
O’Keefe said he was taking medication for high blood pressure, but otherwise he was a “young, healthy” man.
Now the medical episode left him paralyzed on the right side of his body, she said.
“She can’t talk now and she can’t walk. He’s paralyzed on his right side. He knows who we are and will only cry when he sees us, “O’Keefe said.
She said doctors do not know how long it will take them to recover.
“We want him to be able to communicate, be able to walk and talk again, even if it’s not perfect,” O’Keefe said.
Federal regulators stopped using a single dose of J&J shot Tuesday after six women between the ages of 18 and 48 developed blood clots, including one that died.
On Wednesday, the doctor revealed two more cases to the recipients – including a man.
It is unclear whether inoculation is linked to rare cases of blood clotting, which have occurred in more than 7.2 million people who have received the vaccine.
“The CDC and the FDA are working quickly to investigate each case and to understand if there is a causal relationship between these blood clots and the administration of the vaccine,” said CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky.