Erroneous Extra Shot Puts Man, 91, in Shock

Ohio rehab center got its Victors mixed up
By Bob Cronin,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 11, 2021 4:05 PM CST
Erroneous Extra Shot Puts Man, 91, in Shock
A health care worker prepares Moderna COVID-19 vaccines for farmworkers in Morgan Hill, California, last week.   (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

Victor Smith, 91, was in an Ohio rehab clinic when his appointment for a second shot of coronavirus vaccine came around on Jan. 25. He was taken to a county site and returned, Live Science reports. "When he came back, I spoke to him, he was good," said his daughter, Dawn Smith Theodore. It was vaccination day at the rehab center, too, and a firefighter showed up a while later and said he had a dose for Victor. "The nurse said 'Victor Smith?' and he said, 'Yes' so they gave him the room number," his daughter said. But the dose was supposed to go to another Victor at the clinic, per WGCL. "I got two vaccines," Smith told his daughter. After the second shot, Smith's blood pressure dropped, and he went into shock. "They pretty much told me he was not going to make it," Theodore said.

But her father recovered. Smith had had his first shot three days earlier; the doses are supposed to be given weeks apart. The City of Hamilton said the rehab center and the fire department, which handles vaccinations at the clinic, are investigating, per WLWT. No one said which brand of vaccine Smith received. In Australia, two patients, ages 88 and 94, were given as much as four times the recommended Pfizer vaccine dose last month, per ABC. They also recovered. Experts attributed the mistake to the vaccine coming in multidose vials; Australia's health professionals are used to vaccines in single-dose containers. The doctor who gave the shots had not had the training needed. (More coronavirus vaccine stories.)

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