KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Kansas Department of Health and Environment is investigating a woman’s death after she suffered a reaction following the administration of her COVID-19 vaccine.
The woman, identified in a family obituary as 68-year-old Jeanie M. Evans of Effingham, Kansas, received her vaccine in Jefferson County. During the waiting period following the vaccine administration, a KDHE spokesperson said the patient “began experiencing anaphylaxis.”
Medical treatment was then provided and Evans was taken to Stormont-Vail hospital in Topeka where she passed away.
A KDHE spokesperson said the agency will fully investigate her death and until that investigation is complete, “it is premature to assign a specific cause of death.”
To help identify the specific cause of death, a KDHE spokesperson said the local health department entered the information into the national vaccine safety surveillance program run by the CDC called the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System or VAERS.
Once a death is entered into this system, the CDC and FDA will review the death and conduct an investigation.
The CDC and FDA have reviewed 2,216 deaths of people who have received the COVID-19 vaccine. According to the CDC, there is no evidence vaccination has contributed to patient deaths.
KDHE has not said which COVID-19 vaccine the woman received.
According to the CDC, common side effects include arm pain, redness and swelling as well as tiredness, headache, muscle pain, chills, fever and nausea. Anaphylaxis is a rare side effect, according to the agency. Based on data in VAERS, it occurs in 2 to 5 people per million vaccinated.
