46-year-old Mahipal Singh, a ward boy at the Moradabad district hospital died about 30 hours after he received the Covishield vaccine. While his family members have alleged that he fell sick only after receiving the vaccine, Additional CMO of Moradabad district, Dr Dinesh Kumar Premi, while speaking to Outlook, said that Singh died due to a heart attack and that his death has nothing to do with the vaccine. Excerpts:
Can you tell us what went wrong with Mahipal Singh, who reportedly died just a day after he was vaccinated for Covid-19?
Singh’s death has nothing to do with the vaccine he was administered. The post-mortem report has shown that he had a blockage in his heart and puss in his lungs.
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Which vaccine was he administered and when?
He was administered Covishield on January 16 at 1 PM at the District Main Hospital. He was kept in the hospital for observation for some time as we did with all the other vaccinated individuals. He didn’t show any symptom of any side effect. At the time of his release from the hospital, he was completely fine and he had neither any fever nor any rashes or anything of that sort.
When did he start developing health complications?
His family members claim that he developed chest pain around Saturday noon and tried to cure it with home remedies. Then in the evening, he developed chest pain again and faced breathing issues. His family rushed him to the district hospital. He was admitted in the emergency ward and the doctors found him dead. He died on the way to the hospital.
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Did you conduct a post-mortem on him? What does it say?
Yes, at around 11 pm, our committee took a decision to form a panel of three doctors who conducted the post-mortem. We have video graphed the whole process. The post mortem report suggests that he died due to heart attack and pus in the lungs.
Are you sure this has nothing to do with the Covid-19 vaccine he received? Will you make the post mortem report public?
It has nothing to do with vaccination at all. As I said earlier, he died due to heart attack. We cannot make the post-mortem report public as it is a confidential document.
The family has alleged gross negligence at the time of admission at the emergency ward. What do you have to say?
No, it is incorrect. We provided all possible care as soon as we could but as I said he died on the way to the hospital. By the time he reached the emergency ward, he was no more.
