Age: 72.0
Sex: F
Vaccine: COVID19
Symptoms: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, Dyspnoea, Fatigue, SARS-CoV-2 test
Clinical narrative: barely breathe; Fatigue extreme; extreme classic COPD symptoms; This is a spontaneous report received from a contactable consumer or other non hcp. A 72-years-old female patient received BNT162B2 (PFIZER-BIONTECH COVID-19 VACCINE, Batch/lot number: EN6208) via an unspecified route of administration in Arm Right on 25Feb2021 11:45 (age at vaccination 72years old) as 1st dose, single for covid-19 immunisation. Medical history included rheumatoid arthritis from 2009 and ongoing for Rheumatoid arthritis did not take any medications for it, but does take supplements, tobacco user from an unknown date and unknown if ongoing her family smokes, so many of them have COPD; her brother and sister had lung cancer, bronchitis from Nov2020 to an unknown date. Concomitant medication(s) included magnesium (MAGNESIUM); ergocalciferol (VIT D); acetylcysteine (NAC [ACETYLCYSTEINE]) taken for an unspecified indication, start and stop date were not reported. 2 years ago, she got a pneumonia booster and a flu vaccine on the same day, both in the right arm, and her right arm did get swollen. The patient had her 1st dose on 25Feb2021 and since then she has had COPD type symptoms where she can barely breathe, but it had been intermittent. She had also had extreme fatigue, but she had been surprised by the intensity of the breathing symptoms. She had never tested positive for covid. She was a smoker. Luckily, she did have some Albuterol Sulfate with a nebulizer on hand from having acute bronchitis last Nov2020, her symptoms are like extreme classic COPD. She was wondering if the vaccine accelerated something, because she had never been diagnosed with COPD. It was intermittent and comes on suddenly, she did not ever know when it would attack her. She was also taking an Allegra-D. She did believe it was a side effect from the vaccine, she just did not know what to do especially since she did not have a primary care doctor that she can go to. It was such a dramatic response that she had not had problems with before. She was not a heavy smoker, and in fact, she was not smoking at all. She had not been smoking since experiencing these side effects because she can't breathe, and she did not want to go to the hospital at all if she did not have to. Now she was worrying about the 2nd dose, which she had been told is more intense. She was scheduled to get that on 25Mar2021. It might be that other smokers might experience these accelerated COPD symptoms. They just started since she got the vaccine. She had the vaccine on 25Feb2021 and was just a little fatigued. On 26Feb2021 and 27Feb2021, she was fine. On 28Feb2021, she was flat on her back the whole day because she was terribly congested. On 29Feb2021, she got up that morning and was reasonably okay. On 30Feb2021 and 31Feb2021, she was down the whole day and March 1st-3rd, she was fine. 04Mar2021, she was down the whole day. This day was the worst and what prompted her to call. She was afraid she would have to go to the ER because she couldn't breathe. She did a breathing treatment of the albuterol sulfate and took an Allegra D and felt like she stabilized and was feeling better today. She did not take any medications, but she did take supplements. She had Rheumatoid Arthritis, which she takes supplements for. She did not take Methotrexate because it was hard on you. Clarified that she never took Methotrexate. When she went to Rheumatoid Arthritis Clinic, a doctor there prescribed a treatment for her including Methotrexate. Before she took it she did research on it and found that she would have to have her liver enzymes tested every 2 weeks and she didn't want to be tied down to that. So, she looked into the natural alternatives to Methotrexate, and that's what she takes now. States that Methotrexate was a type of cancer drug for childhood leukemia, and it arrests the rheumatic arthritis in your joints. Supplements she takes: Omega 3 with DHA and EPA, Vitamin D 5000mg, Magnesium, NAC, and she also takes Allegra-D when she gets congested, which had been a lot recently. The patient underwent lab tests and procedures which included sars-cov-2 test: she had never tested positive for covid on unspecified date. Therapeutic measures were taken as a result of barely breathe. The clinical outcome of the event barely breathe was recovering and other events outcome was unknown.  No follow up attempts are possible. No further information is expected.