Teen Hospitalized With Rare Blood Clotting

DRAPER, Utah – A healthy athlete at Corner Canyon High School in Draper wound up in the hospital shortly after getting the COVID-19 vaccine. The question being asked was if the vaccine have something to do with it.

Everest Romney plays basketball for Corner Canyon High School. The 6’9” 17-year-old sophomore has been at Primary Children’s Hospital for a week after being diagnosed with blood clots in his head.

According to his mom, Cherie Romney, he got the Pfizer vaccine April 21. That night he started to feel swelling and pain in his neck. Days later he got extreme migraines, so she took him to the emergency room.

She said before the shot, he was 100 percent healthy, playing and practicing basketball.

“There was nothing wrong with him. Nothing. He didn’t have a sore throat (or) any injury,” said Cherie Romney. “If I had known, I would have never [gotten the shot], but so many people have and they have had no problems. I would tell everyone, and I’m trying to tell myself, we can only make the decisions with the information we have at the time. There has been a lot of vaccines given and there has been a lot of good, so it’s an individual decision.”

Everest Romney spoke to KSL TV from his hospital bed, and said he believed the vaccine did play a role.

“I think that it caused the swelling and the swelling caused the clots. I don’t think that it was directly related, but indirectly the cause of the clots,” he said.

Officials at Primary Children’s Hospital referred KSL to the Utah Department of Health, which sent a statement.

To date, there has been no evidence that either of the mRNA vaccines (Pfizer or Moderna) cause the extremely rare blood clotting issues that have been confirmed with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

Millions of people in the United States have received COVID-19 vaccines under the most intense safety monitoring in American history.

Of the 251 million doses of the vaccine that have been administered in the U.S., there have been very few severe adverse reactions reported and confirmed.

The FDA, CDC, and Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) carefully reviewed all of the available data and said they were confident the vaccines are safe and effective in preventing COVID-19.

Everest said he expected to be released from the hospital on Thursday, and hoped to one day get his game back.

“I’m very optimistic about making a full recovery. I wasn’t certain in the beginning,” said Everest.