Miami Beach doctor died of natural causes after getting vaccine, medical examiner says
Medical examiners on Thursday said a Miami Beach doctor who died after receiving the COVID-19 vaccine in December passed away from an immune disorder. Examiners noted it remains unclear whether his death was directly connected to the vaccine.
Dr. Gregory Michael’s official cause of death stemmed from complications with immune thrombocytopenia, or ITP, a blood disorder caused by an immune reaction, after getting the Pfizer vaccine, the Miami-Dade County Medical Examiner Department said.
Michael, a Miami native who was a 56-year-old obstetrician-gynecologist, died on Jan. 3, about two weeks after he received the vaccine at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami Beach. His wife, Heidi Neckelmann, who has not responded to requests for comment from the Miami Herald, penned an anguished post on Facebook announcing her husband’s death and to make the public aware of possible side effects of the vaccine.
Family members told the medical examiners that Michael was in perfect health. He did not take prescription medication, suffer from mental illnesses, have allergies or have any surgeries or hospitalizations. He also did not have any flu-like symptoms, according to the examiner’s report.
After getting partially inoculated in mid-December, he had bruising and noticed pinpoint spots in his lower body, the report read. He was then taken to Mount Sinai where he was diagnosed with thrombocytopenia — a condition in which the body’s autoimmune system reacts against blood platelets.
Mount Sinai did not immediately respond for comment.
Pfizer had issued condolences to Michael’s family in a statement. The company continued to say that his death is not related to the vaccine.
“Pfizer and BioNTech do not believe at this time that there is any direct connection between Dr. Michael’s death and our vaccine,” the company said. “There have been no related safety signals identified in our clinical trials, the post-marketing experience thus far or with the mRNA vaccine platform”.
Medical examiners say one cause of this condition is drug reactions, some of which were linked to COVID-19.
“...given the general mechanism and pathophysiology of vaccination, it is likely that vaccination could also trigger ITP [thrombocytopenia],” the examiner’s report read.
In Michael’s case, there is no evidence that infections, immunodeficiencies or malignancies spurred the condition that led to his death, examiners said. Although, they noted it’s both difficult and rare to prove that him receiving a vaccination was the reason.
Michael ran his own private practice at Mount Sinai for 12 years, according to his website. He also worked as a clinical instructor and faculty member for the physician assistant program at Barry University and Miami Dade College.
This story was originally published April 8, 2021 at 9:06 PM.
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