LJUBLJANA – The Slovenian government has suspended the Janssen COVID-19 vaccine after the death of a 20-year-old student. Katja Jagodic received her shot on Thursday, September 16th. She suffered several health issues shortly afterward. She was hospitalized on Monday, September 27th at the University Clinical Center (UKC) in Ljubljana for her symptoms which were so severe that immediate medical attention was required. She died today in the early morning.
Igor Rigler, head of the emergency neurology department at the University Clinical Center said:
“She fell ill with a very serious condition. At the same time, she had blood clots and low platelet counts. This caused blood clots and bleeding in her brain. We have done everything that modern medicine can do in such conditions. We consulted all the experts involved in this field at UKC: vascular specialists, hematologists, nephrologists, neurologists. We approached the treatment aggressively, but unfortunately, we could not help her.”
Health Minister Janez Poklukar ordered the suspension of the Janssen COVID-19 vaccine after the news:
“A young patient was admitted to the University Clinical Center (UKC) Ljubljana on Monday morning and who was suspected of having a serious adverse event after vaccination against COVID-19. I order the National Institute of Public Health to suspend vaccination with Janssen.”
The father of the 20-year-old was present today at a protest against the ‘COVID-pass‘. The participants of the rally dedicated a minute of silence before he said:
“She wanted to have freedom, just like everyone else here. On September 16th, she went to get vaccinated with Janssen so that she wouldn’t be limited by nonsense. She is no more today. She was 20 years old.”
He continued
“When you get to the vaccination site, no one warns you of possible complications. No one warns that vaccination with the Janssen vaccine is not recommended for people under 40. There are only numbers. There is only talk of percentages. My Katja was not a percentage. She was my Katja.”