Hillary Martinez // West Virginia, USA // Pfizer

Date of vaccine: 3/26/2021

Date of injury: 3/26/2021

What was your life like before you received the COVID-19 vaccine?

Before the vaccine, I was healthy and happy. I was working full time, in school for my MBA and parenting my two daughters. I enjoyed hiking, skiing and traveling.

I have been a certified pharmacy technician for 10 years and have been employed with a pharmaceutical company for 5 of those years. I consider myself well educated and am formally trained on post market pharmacovigilance and adverse event reporting as it is within the scope of my current position. I opted to receive the Pfizer covid-19 vaccine (batch ER8732) last year on March 26, 2021. I believed being vaccinated was in my and my family’s best interest based on the data available at the time.

Unfortunately, I experienced an adverse event and what happened after has changed my outlook on the current reporting standards and US healthcare in general.

Describe your symptoms and the timeline of your reaction 

I had the normal side effects one would expect post vaccination such as fever and headache but within 48 hours began to experience brain zaps. In the following days, I had wide spread paraesthesia, sharp and burning nerve pain, numbness, twitching, muscle weakness and spasms, joint pain, loss of dexterity, extreme fatigue, excessive bruising in legs, brain fog, difficulty concentrating, memory issues, episodes of derealization, blurry vision, postural hypotension, dizziness, tinnitus, severe abdominal pain, nausea, loss of appetite, 15 lb weight loss, dysfunctional temperature regulation, excessive sweating, episodes of Reynauds, exercise and heat intolerance, chest pain, palpitations, tachycardia and shortness of breath.

Many of the side effects are still present almost two years after my vaccine and I was healthy prior with no preexisting conditions nor on any medications. It has impacted my ability to work, parent and care for my household.

Describe the solutions that helped your symptoms 

Midodrine for the dysautonomia.

Which solutions were not helpful?

Gabapentin was given for the paraesthesia and tingling but did not seem to help. It increased the dizziness I was having.

What would you like others to know?

These injuries are real and the people suffering need help from the medical community. I would like to see reform in the medical industry to include mandatory adverse event reporting by health care providers.

Story entry number: 418

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