Anaphylaxis in Five Minutes: Three Epi Shots and ICU¶
Day 4 · 4:50:03 · Myriam Bohémier · Toni Lannigan
- 💉 On shift March 26, 2021, Lannigan took Pfizer in a hospital boardroom at 9:00 and by 9:05 went into anaphylaxis.
- 🚨 Itchy mouth, collapsing blood pressure and heart rate required three epinephrine doses plus continuous IV epi before trauma-centre transfer.
- 😰 She texted love to her daughter walking to Emerg, later rebound shock on weaning epi, and woke in ICU for a couple of days.
First-hand timeline of immediate life-threatening reaction minutes after the shot.
← Toni Lannigan Sworn: PEI Nurse, Mother, and Agreed Vaccine Injury | Vision Loss, Brain Pressure, Falls and a Life on the Couch →
Transcript¶
Myriam Bohémier · 4:50:03
You received a Pfizer shot. Can you please tell us what happened?
Toni Lannigan · 4:50:07
Sure.
Toni Lannigan · 4:50:08
Um, March 20— 26th. 2021. I was on shift. I was not on, I wasn't on a break or a lunch. I was on my time. It was a rollout for vaccines, and because I was frontline, I was ready to have mine. I walked down to a makeshift boardroom, um, in my hospital to receive it. Uh, and at 9:00 I received it. At 9:05, um, my body denied it. I went into anaphylactic response. Um, I was sitting there and—.
Myriam Bohémier · 4:50:58
And can I just slow you down? Because—.
Toni Lannigan · 4:51:00
Yeah, absolutely.
Myriam Bohémier · 4:51:01
Yeah, you say anaphylactic shock, and as a nurse that means something to you. But for the rest of us that speak the English language, they're not going to know your blood pressure is rapidly dropping, your throat and your tongue are starting to swell, you're having difficulty breathing, and then you lose consciousness.
Toni Lannigan · 4:51:22
Yeah. So my first symptom was the roof of my mouth began to become itchy and my coworker said, stand up. We need to go to Emerg. And I'm very lucky I didn't get this vaccine at a clinic because by the time I got over to Emerg, which was only 10 or 12 feet away, at that point my blood pressure did drop and my heart rate. I had not one epinephrine shot, like an EpiPen. I had 3 in total. Not 1, not 2. I had 3 and none was helping the situation. So they gave me an IV of it, and that was continuous until they got me stable to transport me 45 minutes away to Charlottetown QEH trauma center. Um, in trauma center, I don't recall very much. Um, from my records, I do remember reading that once they're trying to wean me down off of um, the epi, that I began to go back into a shock response.
Toni Lannigan · 4:52:34
And after that, um, I woke up in ICU, intensive care unit.
Myriam Bohémier · 4:52:41
You were there for several days, weren't you?
Toni Lannigan · 4:52:43
A couple days, yeah. And then I was released. Um, that sounds like it was a frightening day, but unfortunately that was not the scary part of all this.
Myriam Bohémier · 4:52:51
But let's back up because it was a frightening It was terrifying. So can you share with us kind of what's going on with how you're experiencing it and what, what emotions you were feeling?
Toni Lannigan · 4:53:02
Um, well, I'm— when I was walking down the hallway, I was texting my daughter about, like, you know, how proud and how much I loved her. And, uh, you know, that could have been my last text to my child. That's my pride and joy. So, um, the fear was immense. Um, it was, yeah, um, I did know what was going to happen.
Myriam Bohémier · 4:53:26
So just immediately, so you're on shift, you're actually on shift, but it's like, okay, you guys go get your shot, we've got it set up here, you're in the hospital, thank goodness, and bang, like within minutes your life's changed.
Toni Lannigan · 4:53:40
5 Minutes, 5 minutes is what I talked. Yeah, absolutely. And you know, not, yeah, not one but 3 shots of epinephrine and then continuous.
Toni Lannigan · 4:53:50
Yeah.
Myriam Bohémier · 4:53:51
So you're released from ICU after a few days.