Bethel Park Woman Paralyzed After Vaccination

April 20, 2021 4:08 am

BETHEL PARK, Pa. — (WPXI) -There have been some negative side effects reported worldwide from the Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines, but a Bethel Park woman told Channel 11 she has been affected by something that hadn’t been seen at all yet: paralysis. The 33-year-old woman, who asked to remain anonymous, said she felt fine in the hours after getting the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine last week. However, she said 12 hours later, she woke up in the middle of the night with no feeling in her arms or legs. “It was the scariest thing in the world to go to sleep completely fine (and walking), to wake up 1:30 in the morning and not be able to move at all,” the woman said. “I’m literally counting on my daughter to hand me my phone to call to get help.” Paramedics came and rushed her to Jefferson Hospital. In the coming days, she was moved to Allegheny General Hospital in the Northside and then the Cleveland Clinic — as doctors ran a multitude of tests to figure out how and why this happened. An MRI and spinal tap were clear, and her blood work all came came back negative, ruling out any rare diseases or disorders. “There is just nothing they can find wrong with me. No underlying conditions, I have nothing in my history and they are basically telling me, ‘You’re healthy and we can’t figure out why this is going on,’” the woman told Channel 11. Luckily, she has been able to regain feeling and strength in her arms, but she still has no function from her lower chest down besides very slight movement in a few toes. Dr. Dave Weber, an infectious disease doctor with UPMC, said he has not heard of anything like this happening anywhere in the world with the Pfizer vaccine.