A South Surrey man who developed a blood clot after receiving the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine is encouraging people to watch for symptoms for a little longer than what鈥檚 recommended by health officials.
Approximately one in 60,000 people can develop a blood clot after receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine, according to Ontario public health. The BC Centre for Disease Control said people who receive the vaccine should watch for symptoms between four to 20 days after being vaccinated. The symptoms include headache, seizure, difficulty moving, blurry vision, difficulty speaking, shortness of breath, chest pain, severe abdominal pain, swelling on arm or leg, abnormal bruising or reddish or purple spots under the skin.
Hal Fraser Bringeland received his shot April 5. It wasn鈥檛 until April 30 that he first realized he was having trouble catching his breath while playing squash. Since it was well after the symptom window, Bringeland said he wrote it off as stress at work, or age.
鈥淵ou can kind of explain away a lot of things,鈥� he told Peace Arch News.
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Despite an elevated resting heart rate, he felt normal off the squash court. A week later, he returned to play squash and again, felt a shortness of breath.
鈥淚 was just having a hard time catching my breath compared to what I think would have been normal. I came home and told my wife about it. She reminded me there was this 811 helpline I could call鈥� anyway, I didn鈥檛 do it.鈥�
Everything went back to normal until Bringeland returned to the court the following week.
鈥淭his time it was different. I was really struggling to catch my breath. I was playing well, but I had to take longer between rallies鈥�. There was this weird sort of emptiness in my lungs which just didn鈥檛 let me catch up,鈥� he said.
This time, he phoned 811 and a doctor listed off a number of symptoms. The doctor asked if there was swelling in one of his legs, which he said no.
It wasn鈥檛 until later that day that he realized one of his legs was swollen.
Bringeland went in for a blood test.
鈥淭he doctor called me and said you鈥檝e got elevated d-dimer levels. You really got to get in for scanning, now. And that was the word that was emphasized.鈥�
Bringeland spent about nine hours in Peace Arch Hospital going through a series of tests. In between tests, he looked up medical journals and found two cases of people being diagnosed with a AstraZeneca-related blood clot 27 and 29 days after their shot.
鈥淪o that sort of distinguished the whole process from what I was led to believe, which was that I had my shot six weeks ago so how could that be the case? But then I started thinking back鈥� wait a minute, my first set of difficulty breathing was on April 30, that鈥檚 25 days,鈥� Bringeland said.
鈥淚 started to read a little bit more and I became convinced that this was somehow related to AstraZeneca.鈥�
To treat the blood clot, Bringeland has been prescribed three months of blood thinners.
However, the doctor treating Bringeland is not convince the clot was related to the vaccine, he said.
鈥淲hat she points to is the fact that lots of people get these thrombosis events, deep vein thrombosis, and they were taking place well in advance of AstraZeneca,鈥� he said. 鈥淎ll of the ones that she has seen related to AstraZeneca, one of the diagnostic things is they look at your platelet count. In every case she has seen, platelet count has been low when linked to AstraZeneva, my count wasn鈥檛 low.鈥�
鈥淪o she鈥檚 not convinced that it was related to AstraZenevca. Now I鈥檓 convinced, and suddenly, I鈥檓 a freaking medical expert so I know everything,鈥� he joked.
Regardless of whether or not Bringeland鈥檚 blood clot is related to AstraZeneca, he wants to remind people to always pay attention to symptoms. He said it鈥檚 easy to write things off, or explain symptoms away, much like he initially did.
Bringeland credits his wife for encouraging him to call 811, and is accepting a little friendly razzing from his buddies.
鈥淔raser, we used to think you were that one in a million kind of guy, so we鈥檙e sadly disappointed to learn you鈥檙e one in 60,000,鈥� one of his friends quipped.
