OC X-Ray Tech Dies After 2nd Dose Of Coronavirus Vaccine: Report
ORANGE, CA — An Orange County resident and healthcare worker suffered a reaction and died after receiving his second dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine, his family shared. Whether the two events are related is under investigation by the Orange County Coroner's office, and state officials.
Timothy Zook's wife, Rochelle, shared the news of her husband's death with the Orange County Register this week in a plea for officials to further investigate the reason that her husband died.
Just over two hours after his final vaccination, which he shared over social media, Timothy Zook experienced "a severely upset stomach and had trouble breathing," his wife explained to the Register. He was admitted into the hospital on Jan. 5 and was diagnosed with congestive heart failure. Reports say he tested negative for coronavirus and was placed on a ventilator. Timothy Zook died on Jan. 9 at the University of California Irvine Medical Center hospital.
Though questions surround his death, his wife wants to make sure that he did not die in vain.
"COVID is a much more deadly force than the reactions from the potential vaccine itself," she told the Register. "The message is, be safe, take the vaccine, but the officials need to do more research. We need to know the cause. The vaccines need to be as safe as possible. Every life matters."
According to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, a "passive surveillance system," according to the Register, shows 130 reports of death after vaccine administration. There have been 1,330 allergic reactions, and 23.5 million doses of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines were successfully administered.
Over 13 million have been vaccinated with the Pfizer vaccine as of Tuesday, the Register reports, and 10.5 have been vaccinated with Moderna.
According to Rochelle Zook the family is not laying blame for his death on "any pharmaceutical company." She says her husband loved his family, his job, and was excited to be vaccinated.
"He worked in hospitals for 36 1/2 years," she told the Register. "He believed in vaccines. I'm sure he would take that vaccine again, and he'd want to public to have it."
Tim Zook did have high blood pressure, which was controlled through medicines, she says.
Orange County Coroner's Office is reviewing the cause of death, saying it is inconclusive. It may be months before they fully complete the toxicology.
Carrie Braun, the spokeswoman for the Orange County Coroner's Office, says that if there is any correlation to the vaccine in the ultimate cause of Zook's death, "we will immediately notify the OC Health Care Agency."
The Secretary of Health and Human Services in California, Dr. Mark Ghaly, is also looking into the incident.
"The details are complex and worthy of further investigation, and that's what we're doing," Ghaly reported on Monday. "Overwhelmingly, though, we've seen so many individuals successfully, and without any significant reactions, receive both the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines."
Zook is survived by his wife, sons Aaron, 30, Jared, 26, and Kyle, 24.
This article originally appeared on the Mission Viejo Patch
