Family members said Mr. Keating’s only warning signs were fatigue, muscle soreness, a sore throat, and an increased heart rate. He did not experience any hallmark signs of a heart problem, such as chest pain, shortness of breath, or a fluttering heart that would warrant a trip to the emergency room.
When the pathologist’s preliminary analysis of Mr. Keating’s heart appeared normal, he decided to take 22 different slides of tissue for further assessment and discovered vaccine inflammation had damaged and attacked his entire heart.
Mr. Keating’s sister Kaylee Koch, in correspondence with The Epoch Times, said her family contacted the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), legislators, local news stations, their governor, and the local health department, yet have received no response.
Mr. Keating’s family sent documentation, including the autopsy report, to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) in hopes they could find answers and prevent the same fate from happening to others.
CDC’s Myocarditis Definition Excludes Severe Cases
Myocarditis is heart muscle inflammation that can lead to cardiac arrhythmia, cardiac arrest, stroke, and death. The National Organization for Rare Disorders states that myocarditis can result from infection but is more commonly a result of the body’s immune reaction to the initial heart damage.To meet the CDC’s case definition of myocarditis, people must have had “symptoms such as chest pain, shortness of breath and feelings of having a fast-beating, fluttering, or pounding heart, and medical tests to support the diagnosis of myocarditis and rule out other causes.”
Myocarditis Induced by COVID-19 Vaccination Is Different From Other Causes
Results of a large cohort study published in April 2022 in the Journal of the American Medical Association Cardiology showed both first and second doses of mRNA vaccines were associated with an increased risk of myocarditis and pericarditis. For those who received two doses of the same vaccine, the risk of myocarditis was highest among males aged 16 to 24 after the second dose.Researchers noted the findings to be consistent with data showing between four and seven excess events in 28 days per 100,000 vaccinees after Pfizer vaccination and between nine and 28 excess events per 100,000 vaccinees after Moderna.
He added that studies assessing troponin elevations reveal incidence is much higher than incidence based on symptoms. Troponins are proteins released into the bloodstream when heart damage occurs. A cardiac troponin test measures the levels of troponin T or troponin I proteins in the blood. Typically, troponin stays inside the heart muscle’s cells, but damage to those cells causes troponin to release into the bloodstream. The higher the troponin levels in the blood, the more extensive the heart damage.
Before the COVID-19 vaccine rollout, myocarditis caused by viral infections such as adenovirus and influenza was the most common cause of heart inflammation in children, pediatric cardiologist Dr. Kirk Milhoan told The Epoch Times. Although myocarditis can be caused by COVID-19, the myocarditis developed by a healthy young person post-infection is “extremely mild.”
According to Dr. Milhoan, myocarditis caused by the COVID-19 vaccine differs from viral myocarditis because an infection of the heart isn’t causing the damage. It’s being damaged by the “spike protein that’s cardiotoxic to the heart,” which causes inflammation in the three main vessels of the heart and has a different process.
“There’s a difference between the body encountering a virus naturally that causes myocarditis and actively giving the body something we know causes harm,” he said.
In other words, the study found that spike protein was detected in the blood of individuals with post-vaccine myocarditis but was not found in vaccinated control subjects with no myocarditis.
Myocarditis Caused by COVID-19 Vaccination Often Evades Normal Tests
According to Dr. Milhoan, obtaining an accurate diagnosis of vaccine-associated myocarditis is challenging.“The way the vaccine injury works, the heart often forms a scar that we don’t always pick up on our other usual tests. Normally if we study someone with suspected myocarditis, we will get labs that reveal damage to the myocardial cell, such as a troponin level, an EKG to see how the heart looks electrically, an echocardiogram, and a stress test,“ he said. ”But these are often normal in someone with myocarditis following COVID-19 vaccination.”
This is why the gold standard for detecting myocarditis following COVID-19 vaccination is cardiac magnetic resonance imaging, also known as a cardiac MRI, Dr. Milhoan said. A cardiac MRI is used for more complex heart conditions and shows a more detailed picture of what’s happening in the heart. It can detect damage to the heart muscle that goes undetected by other tests.
Of the 519 patients, a subset of 151 patients had cardiac MRIs, with 81 patients displaying one or more abnormalities, including 71 with late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) and 22 with edema—fluid or inflammation in the heart triggered by heart damage.
Treatment of Myocarditis Caused by COVID-19 Vaccination
The primary treatment for myocarditis, whether caused by a vaccine or virus, is to rest the heart and avoid exercise for six months, according to Dr. Milhoan. Patients who are very sick are given medications to lower their blood pressure and heart rate so the heart doesn’t have to work as hard.After letting the heart rest, a repeat cardiac MRI is done to evaluate the risk of cardiac death. If there’s enough of a scar, doctors may consider putting in an implantable defibrillator to detect and stop irregular heartbeats, also known as arrhythmias.
“The heart has to beat at least 60 to 70 times a minute, which is over a hundred thousand times a day, so we can never completely let the heart rest like you’d let another muscle rest,” said Dr. Milhoan. “The body is really good at healing itself, and the heart has an amazing ability to recover if we do not abuse it further.”
“Weeks and perhaps months later, these arrhythmias may be provoked by exercise and a hyperadrenergic state—norepinephrine release resulting in collapse and sudden deaths in athletes and others,” he wrote in an email to The Epoch Times.
As for the damage unique to vaccinated individuals caused by free-floating spike protein in the blood, Dr. Milhoan says there’s currently no medicine or supplement to remove spike protein from the blood.
“We’re trying things, but we don’t have a protocol, and sometimes the problem is that the damage is already done,“ he said. ”It’s like when you already have a scar on your skin; you can do a lot of things, and you are still going to have a scar. Once a scar on the heart forms, you’re at risk for all sorts of things, and you can do nothing to take that scar away.”
Dr. Milhoan said everyone acknowledges COVID-19 vaccines can cause myocarditis, but the debate is over how common it is. The CDC says the condition is rare, but physicians knowledgeable about vaccine-associated myocarditis treating these patients and reviewing the data say that’s not the case.
“With most vaccines, we are looking at a one-in-a-million side effect profile, but now we are in numbers that are no longer acceptable regarding the risk-benefit profile,“ he said. ”I just want people to have accurate data to make informed decisions.”
The Epoch Times reached out to the NIAID and the CDC for comment.
