Ballari man suffered from high BP, diabetes

BALLARI/BENGALURU: A 43-year-old Group D employee of Sandur taluk hospital died of a heart attack on Monday, two days after he was vaccinated against Covid-19. Nagaraj, who worked as an attender, came to work at the hospital as usual but soon complained of dizziness and collapsed. Sandur, in Ballari district, is about 314 km from Bengaluru.
“Nagaraj suffered chest pains at around 9.30am.It was a massive heart attack. A post-mortem examination will be done and we will have to wait for the report. It could be sheer coincidence,” district health officer Dr BL Janardhan told TOI, adding that the attender suffered from diabetes and hypertension. Nagaraj was shifted to a private hospital and died at about noon.
“The preliminary adverse event following immunization (AEFI) meeting has said the death is not because of the vaccine. However, post-mortem is being done,” said Pankaj Kumar Pandey, commissioner, health and family welfare department. The state health department said the death was due to cardiorespiratory arrest. “None of the other healthcare workers who took the vaccine from the same vial had any other adverse events,” the health and family welfare department tweeted.
Ballari deputy commissioner Pavan Kumar Malpati said it was too early to draw conclusions. “The committee on AEFI will look into it. I request everyone to wait and not speculate on the cause of death,” he said.
Karnataka health minister K Sudhakar pointed out that Nagaraj had diabetes and other comorbidities. “He received the first dose on Saturday and had no complaints of side effects till 9am on Monday,” Sudhakar said.
Health department authorities said Nagaraj was doing well post-vaccination. “He suffered an acute myocardial infarction. On Monday, he was asked to get medicine from the pharmacy. He reportedly collapsed near the pharmacy,” a department source said.
Nagaraj was part of the first batch in the state to be vaccinated on Saturday, the very first day of the national vaccination drive. He was administered Covishield.