Obstetrician Dr. Gregory Michael was a healthy 56-year-old obstetrician when he got the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine on December 18th, said his wife Heidi Neckelman, in a Facebook post shared over 10,000 times.

He was active and had no pre-existing conditions, but after the shot, things took a turn for the worse. Dr. Michael developed Idiopathic Thrombocytopenia Purpura (ITP), which is an autoimmune illness that causes the body to destroy its own platelets, the tiny fragments that help blood to clot.

Autoimmune means that something in the vaccine may be provoking the body to create antibodies to its own platelets, could be because of molecular mimicry, or cross reactivity between proteins.

ITP has been documented to occur after the MMR vaccine, as well as influenza vaccines, DTP vaccine and hepatitis A vaccines.

Three days after getting the experimental vaccine, Dr. Michael noticed petechiae – spots of red that indicate bleeding beneath the skin – on his feet and hands.

When he checked himself into Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami Beach, the hospital where he works and had the experimental vaccine, medics discovered he was suffering from an acute lack of platelets.

‘All the blood results came back normal except for the platelets which came back as zero,’ Heidi said.

According to an interview by The Daily Mail: ‘At first they thought it must be a mistake. So they did the test again and this time did a manual count which is supposed to be more accurate. This time it showed just one platelet.

‘He felt 100 percent, he was normal, energetic, happy. But they said you cannot go home, this is incredibly dangerous, you could suffer a brain bleed and die.’

Normally doctors would expect a range of between 150,000 to 450,000 platelets per microliter of blood.

Their primary function is to help the blood clot and prevent bleeding.

Heidi says doctors tried frantically to reverse what they diagnosed as an acute immune disorder known as ITP – idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura.

Sadly, Dr. Michael had a hemorrhagic stroke – when blood from an artery bleeds into the brain – and died before he could undergo the surgery to remove his spleen.

‘There is no way I am letting my daughter or anyone else in my family have the vaccine now, not until we know they have ironed out all the bugs and ensured that it’s safe.

‘I don’t want people to get sick from Covid and I’m not against vaccines but we need to slow things down.

‘They are giving this vaccine to some of the most important people, the doctors and nurses that take care of us, as well as the elderly, the most vulnerable.

‘As a doctor my husband would not have wanted anyone to take something that was not safe.’

Pfizer’s jab was licensed on December 11 for anyone aged 16 or older.

A spokesperson for Pfizer said:

‘We are actively investigating this case, but we don’t believe at this time that there is any direct connection to the vaccine.

‘There have been no related safety signals identified in our clinical trials, the post-marketing experience thus far or with the mRNA vaccine platform.

‘To date, millions of people have been vaccinated and we are closely monitoring all adverse events in individuals receiving our vaccine.

‘It is important to note that 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.’

However, clinical trials typically do not pick up rare reactions. This is why postmarketing surveillance is so important. The main database for vaccine reactions is Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, and this injury has yet to make its way into that surveillance.