Binbrook man gets heart inflammation after COVID shot

Daryl Jerome woke up in the worst pain of his life days after getting his second COVID shot.

I woke up at 2 a.m. in the morning with just severe chest pains - right in the middle of my chest," said Jerome, who is president of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation in Hamilton.

The 40-year-old Binbrook man says he was taken by ambulance to Juravinski Hospital on Wednesday with pericarditis - an inflammation of the membrane around the heart.

I don't want people to be scared off," he said, despite the Moderna shot he got Saturday being the suspected culprit.

Would I do it again? Yeah, absolutely," he said from his hospital bed Thursday.

I have friends getting Moderna and they knew what I just went through," said Jerome. My wife dropped stuff off to me at the hospital and went out and got her second shot."

Higher than normal incidence of pericarditis and myocarditis - an inflammation of the heart muscle - are being investigated in the United States and Europe to see if there is a connection with mRNA vaccines like Pfizer and Moderna.

Canada is not seeing higher than expected rates but is still closely monitoring it.

In Ontario, there have been 19 reports as of June 12. Of those, 14 were men and five were women. The age range was 15 to 78 years old with the median age being 32.

Public health said on Monday and Thursday that there haven't been any reported cases involving Hamilton residents.

To date, no clear association has been established between myocarditis/pericarditis and mRNA vaccines and no jurisdiction in Canada or internationally has suspended use of COVID-19 mRNA vaccines as a result of these reports," public health said in a statement.

One local doctor says McMaster Children's Hospital has definitely seen cases in teens," but she can't say where they lived - city hospitals have a wide catchment area and only Hamilton residents would be reported to public health.

At this point, we simply don't know how common this is," said Dr. Martha Fulford, associate professor in the division of infectious diseases at McMaster University. My suspicion is that this is a very real vaccine-associated risk - but likely rare and self-limited."

St. Joseph's Healthcare said Thursday it hasn't admitted any patients with heart inflammation following vaccination. Hamilton Health Sciences (HHS) refused to provide any information about how many cases it has seen.

Health-care professionals report adverse events related to vaccines directly to public health," spokesperson Wendy Stewart said in a statement.

It's unclear why public health appears to be unaware of Jerome's case.

This isn't the first time he's had pericarditis - it also happened in 2013 because of a viral infection.

They said these are usually fluke things," said Jerome. You'll probably never get it again, in fact, you should buy a lottery ticket if you do."

When he woke up early Wednesday his first thought was, This is exactly the same way I felt eight years ago."

Jerome had been feeling ill since he got the shot on Saturday - chills, fever and headache. But he didn't think much of it because he had a similar reaction when he got his first dose of AstraZeneca.

He switched to Moderna for his second shot simply because he could get it faster.

He was expected to be in hospital until at least Friday and praised his care at Juravinski. He's on the mend and says there's no damage to his heart.

My stamina is obviously shot and I feel really weak because my heart has been through a lot," he said.

But he has no regrets saying, At the end of the day if I got COVID there is a good chance I could get pericarditis."

Joanna Frketich is a Hamilton-based reporter covering health for The Spectator. Reach her via email: jfrketich@thespec.com