X-Ray technician, 60, who was 'excited' to get COVID vaccine dies just two days after getting second dose of Pfizer jab and suffering 'bad reaction' including breathing difficulties - but officials say his cause of death is inconclusive

A California healthcare worker who said he was ‘excited’ to get the COVID-19 vaccine died just two days after receiving his second dose of Pfizer jab, according to a report.

Tim Zook, a 60-year-old X-ray technologist at South Coast Global Medical Center in Santa Ana, died on January 7, according to the Orange County Register.

Two days earlier, after receiving his second jab on January 5, Zook wrote on Facebook: ‘Never been so excited to get a shot before. I am now fully vaccinated after receiving my second Pfizer dose.’

However, within hours the father-of-three reportedly suffered an apparent adverse reaction, telling co-workers he had sharp pains in his stomach and was having difficulties breathing.    

After his symptoms worsened, his coworkers walked him over to the emergency room where he was placed on a ventilator four hours after arriving.

Two days later, on January 7, he was transferred to the UC Irvine Medical Center and placed in a medically induced coma.

His wife, Rochelle Zook, told the Register that within hours his kidneys started failing, before he was declared dead later that day.

Zook's family said he had high blood pressure and was slightly overweight, but otherwise had no underlying health conditions.

The Orange County coroner said Zook's cause of death is currently inconclusive and further toxicology testing will take months to complete. If there is a correlation to the vaccine, the office said it will notify the OC Health Care Agency.

In a statement to DailyMail.com, a Pfizer spokesperson said the company is aware of Zook’s death and is also investigating the matter.

Tim Zook (above with wife Rochelle), a 60-year-old X-ray technologist at South Coast Global Medical Center in Santa Ana died just two days after receiving his second dose of Pfizer jab

Moments after he was given the vaccine, Zook wrote on Facebook: ‘Never been excited to get a shot before. I am now fully vaccinated after receiving my second Pfizer dose'

Pfizer said: ‘Our immediate thoughts are with the bereaved family. We closely monitor all such events and collect relevant information to share with global regulatory authorities.

‘Based on ongoing safety reviews performed by Pfizer, BioNTech and health authorities, BNT162b2 retains a positive benefit-risk profile for the prevention of COVID-19 infections. Serious adverse events, including deaths that are unrelated to the vaccine, are unfortunately likely to occur at a similar rate as they would in the general population.’ 

Rochelle Zook told the Register her family was not ‘blaming any pharmaceutical company.'

‘My husband loved what he did,' she said. 'He worked in hospitals for 36 1/2 years. He believed in vaccines. I’m sure he would take that vaccine again, and he’d want the public to take it.

‘But when someone gets symptoms 2 1/2 hours after a vaccine, that’s a reaction. What else could have happened? We would like the public to know what happened to Tim, so he didn’t die in vain. Severe reactions are rare. In reality, COVID is a much more deadly force than reactions from the potential vaccine itself.

‘The message is, be safe, take the vaccine — but the officials need to do more research. We need to know the cause. The vaccines need to be as safe as possible. Every life matters.’

Rochelle said her husband had high blood pressure, which he had been taking medication for, for years. But she said he had never before been hospitalized, and would usually get over a cold or a flu within a matter of days. 

Friends and family members have described Zook as a caring man who passionately urged others to follow COVID precautions, such as wearing face masks and practicing social distancing.

Matt Whaley, CEO of South Coast Global Medical Center where Zook worked, said: ‘Our deepest condolences are with Tim Zook’s family and loved ones.

‘Tim was a part of our family, too, and we are all grieving his loss. 

Within hours of receiving the vaccine, the father-of-three (shown above at work) reportedly suffered an adverse reaction, telling co-workers he had sharp pains in his stomach and was having difficulties breathing.

After his symptoms worsened, his coworkers at South Coast Global Medical Center walked him over to the emergency room, where he was placed on a ventilator within four hours of arriving

'Perfectly Healthy' Miami doctor, 56, Dies Weeks After Getting Pfizer Jab

The grieving wife of a leading Florida doctor has told DailyMail.com how her ‘perfect’ husband died from a mystery blood disorder - just days after getting the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine.

Heidi Neckelmann says obstetrician Gregory Michael, 56 - her ‘best friend’ and partner of 28 years – was active, healthy and had no pre-existing conditions before getting the jab on December 18.

However he died from a stroke Sunday morning after suddenly developing a rare autoimmune illness that causes the body to destroy its own platelets, the tiny fragments that help blood to clot.

Distraught Heidi, 58, thinks the groundbreaking Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine may have somehow been the trigger.

‘In my mind his death was 100 percent linked to the vaccine. There is no other explanation,’ she told DailyMail.com, fighting back tears.

‘He was in very good health. He didn’t smoke, he drank alcohol once in a while but only socially. He worked out, we had kayaks, he was a deep sea fisherman.

‘They tested him for everything you can imagine afterwards, even cancer, and there was absolutely nothing else wrong with him.’

Pfizer told DailyMail.com Wednesday that it was aware of Dr. Michael's ‘highly unusual’ death and was investigating further.

However a spokesman cautioned: ‘We don’t believe at this time that there is any direct connection to the vaccine.’

Zook’s death came within in days of a doctor in Miami dying of a mysterious blood disorder, weeks after he received the Pfizer shot.

Gregory Michael, a 56-year-old obstetrician and gynecologist in Miami Beach, suffered idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura , a rare immune disorder in which the blood doesn’t clot normally.

Family members described him as ‘perfectly healthy’, with no pre-existing conditions before getting the jab weeks earlier on December 18.

He died suddenly after suffering a stroke, the cause of which is currently under investigation.

Similarly, over the weekend, officials in Placer County, California, reported that a man died after shortly after receiving an unspecified COVID vaccine on January 21.

The person has not yet been named, and an autopsy is currently being carried out to determine their specific cause of death.

The Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System – which experts caution is a ‘passive surveillance system’ and is unverified – has gathered more than 130 reports of death after vaccination in 2021, so far.

A total of 1,330 adverse reactions have been reported, according to the website, while more than 23.5 million doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines have been administered.

DailyMail.com has reached out to the Department of Health and Human Services for comment on the accuracy of the listed statistics.

In a statement to the Register, the department said: ‘No prescription drug or biological product, such as a vaccine, is completely free from side effects. Vaccines protect many people from dangerous illnesses, but vaccines, like drugs, can cause side effects, a small percentage of which may be serious.

‘About 85-90% of vaccine adverse event reports concern relatively minor events, such as fevers or redness and swelling at the injection site. The remaining reports (less than 15%) describe serious events, such as hospitalizations, life-threatening illnesses, or deaths.

The statement continued: ‘It is important to note that for any reported event, no cause and effect relationship has been established. The event may have been related to an underlying disease or condition, to medications being taken concurrently, or may have occurred by chance.’

Rochelle said her husband had high blood pressure, which he had been taking medication for, for years. She said he had never before been hospitalized, and would usually get over a cold or a flu within a matter of days

In a statement to DailyMail.com, a Pfizer spokesperson said the company is aware of Zook’s death and is investigating the matter

Zook’s death came within in days of the passing of Gregory Michael, a 56-year-old obstetrician and gynecologist in Miami Beach, who died after suffering a mysterious blood disorder, weeks after he received the Pfizer shot

Mark Ghaly, secretary of health and human services in California, said the state is also looking into Zook’s death, and the other death in the state earlier this month.

‘The details are complex and worthy of further investigation, and that’s what we’re doing now,’ he said in a Monday statement. ‘Overwhelmingly, though, we’ve seen so many individuals successfully, and without any significant reactions, receive both the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines.’

Ghaly also assured that the results of the state’s investigation will be publicly shared along with the lessons learned from it, he said.

The United States began vaccinations five weeks ago, however just 6.2 percent of the population have so far received their first doses of either Pfizer's or Moderna's two-dose vaccines.

Currently, the US is vaccinating 1.27 million people a day on average. President Joe Biden said Monday that he wanted to increase that figure to a daily average of 1.5 million in the coming weeks.

A poll released by the Kaiser Family Foundation on Wednesday found that 47 percent of Americans want to get the COVID-19 vaccine 'as soon as possible.'

Conducted just one week before Biden took office, the results shows the US is less hesitant to get the vaccine than they were back in December, when just 34 percent said they wanted it immediately.

Another 31 percent say they want to ‘wait until it has been available for a while to see how it is working for others.’

But 20 percent are more reluctant to get vaccinated, including 7 percent who will only get vaccinated ‘if required to do so for work, school or other activities,’ and 13 percent who say they will ‘definitely not’ get the vaccine, the survey found.

It comes as the US death toll rose to 425,257, including an additional 3,990 on Tuesday. More than 25 million Americans have been diagnosed with COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic.

Encouragingly, cases, deaths and hospitalizations were all down last week compared to previous weeks, but deaths remains high with an average of 3,287 people dying a day.