A student who suffered blood clots after getting her second Covid-19 vaccine shot and her left leg was amputated has since died of a haemorrhagic stroke after brain surgery.
Ketsiree Kongkaew, 20, a student at Phangnga Community College, died on Monday morning at Songklanagarid Hospital, Thai media reported on Tuesday.
She had been inoculated first with the Sinovac vaccine, and then given AstraZeneca as her second dose.
Her grandmother Harlia Kongkae, 85, of Ban Thadan village in Muang district of Phangnga, took the young woman’s body from Songkhlanagarind Hospital on Monday afternoon for Islamic funeral rites in Ao Luk district of Krabi prvonce.
They travelled by a rescue foundation vehicle.
The old woman has a small grocery shop in Ban Thadan and her granddaughter lived with her there.
Adul Chuthong, chief of Muang Phangnga district led local officials and teachers in offering moral support to the old woman and other relatives. Ketsiree’s body was to be interred at Ban Bagan burial ground in Au Luk district.
After the ceremony, the grandmother was to return to her house on Koh Panyee in Phangnga province.
Anupong Thammarong, 25, a classmate of Ketsiree from the same village, said a doctor from Songklanagarind Hospital had phoned the grandmother late on Friday night, asking for permission to perform surgery. The doctor said Ketsiree had bleeding in her brain.
The grandmother and relatives gave their permission. After the operation, the young woman remained unconscious. She was reliant on a ventilator and was pronounced dead on Monday morning after a haemorrhagic stroke.
The doctors said the brain haemorrhage was a side effect of the thrombolytic drugs used to treat blood clots, Mr Anupong said.
Ketsiree was reported to have earlier suffered an acute arterial occlusion, or blockage of a limb artery, after receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine as her second shot.
According to Jamras Khanadpol, director of Phangnga Community College, she began feeling unwell after her second shot on Aug 13.
She complained of a fever and chest pains about three days later, her classmate Anupong said. She went to see a doctor at Phangnga Hospital, who diagnosed her with a bladder infection.
Ketsiree was later rushed back to the hospital after she experienced severe pain in her left leg. She was referred to Surat Thani Hospital, where an X-ray revealed blood clots that required urgent surgery.
As her condition continued to worsen, the hospital transferred her to the better-equipped Krabi Hospital, then to Songklanagarind Hospital in Hat Yai, where doctors decided to amputate her leg, Mr Anupong said.
The National Health Security Office has given Ketsiree’s family financial assitance of 400,000 baht.
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