CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (MindaNews / 14 May) – Heart attack caused the death of a septuagenarian who died minutes after getting his first dose here of the AstraZeneca vaccine against COVID-19, police said.
Lt Col Karl Terrence Caballes, medico-legal officer of Philippine National Police 10, said that based on an autopsy Zoilo Joaquin Borcillo, 73, did not die because of the vaccine as earlier feared.
“We did not find blood clots anywhere in his body or near where the point of the vaccine entered his left arm,” Caballes, who performed the autopsy, said in his report.
Borcillo, a resident of Tin-ao, Barangay Agusan this city, collapsed after he was given his first jab of the AstraZeneca vaccine at a shopping mall here.
He died at the JR Borja General Hospital minutes later despite efforts by doctors to revive him.
Caballes, whose report was read by Mayor Oscar Moreno during the daily COVID presser here said he found Borcillo’s heart and the arteries leading to filled with fatty deposits.
He said the color of Borcillo’s heart was yellow indicating a buildup of fatty deposits.
“Hirap na magpump nang dugo (The heart had difficulty pumping blood). There was no blood clots,” he said.
He identified the cause of death as acute myocardial infarction or heart attack.
AstraZeneca, a two-dose vaccine, has been plagued with questions of rare, but severe blood clot issues connected to the shots.
The Department of Health and the Food and Drug Administration, however, gave the green light to the vaccine saying the “benefits outweighs the risks.”
Moreno said he hoped the autopsy report would put to rest the fears of senior citizens of being vaccinated with AstraZeneca.
He said only 500 of the 1,200 senior citizens scheduled to be vaccinated today came for the inoculation.
He said before Borcillo’s death last Wednesday, 6,275 seniors were already vaccinated.
He said the vaccination of seniors will resume on Monday, May 17, at the SM Downtown Premier, Robinsons Grocery and JR Borja General Hospital. (Froilan Gallardo/MindaNews)