A South Florida doctor who passed away two weeks after receiving his first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine died of natural causes, a medical examiner has ruled.
Dr. Gregory Michael died from complications of immune thrombocytopenia following receipt of the vaccine, according to a Miami-Dade County Medical Examiner's report released Thursday.
Michael, who had worked as an OBGYN at Miami Beach's Mt. Sinai Medical Center for more than a decade, died on January 3rd.
According to the report, the 56-year-old had received the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine on Dec. 19, 2020, and was hospitalized on Dec. 22.
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His wife, Heidi Neckelmann, said he had begun experiencing strange symptoms several days after receiving the dose, including small spots on his hands and feet.
He was eventually admitted to the ICU with a diagnosis of acute Idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP), a rare condition in which the body’s immune system mistakingly attacks cell fragments found in the blood known as platelets. In adults, it can be chronic.
"Two days before a last resort surgery, he got a hemorrhagic stroke caused by the lack of platelets that took his life in a matter of minutes,” Neckelmann wrote in a Facebook post.
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The medical examiner's report said there wasn't enough evidence to show whether the vaccine contributed to Michael's death.
"Given the history, autopsy, toxicology, and laboratory findings, the cause of death is complications of immune thrombocytopenia following receipt of SARS-CoV-2 vaccine," the report said. "Based on the circumstances as currently known, the manner of death is natural."
