![\"Rochelle](\"http:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/rochelle-and-tim-zook-300x300.jpg\")
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Tim Zook\u2019s last post on Facebook brimmed with optimism. \u201cNever been so excited to get a shot before,\u201d he wrote on Jan. 5, above a photo of the Band-Aid on his arm and his COVID-19 vaccination card. \u201cI am now fully vaccinated after receiving my 2nd Pfizer dose.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zook, 60, was an X-ray technologist at South Coast Global Medical Center in Santa Ana. A couple of hours later, he had an upset stomach and trouble breathing. By 3:30 p.m. it was so bad his colleagues at work walked him to the emergency room. \u201cShould I be worried?\u201d his wife, Rochelle, texted when she got the news. \u201cNo, absolutely not,\u201d he texted back. \u201cDo you think this is a direct result of the vaccine?\u201d she typed. \u201cNo, no,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m not sure what. But don\u2019t worry.\u201d<\/p>\n
There were suspicions of COVID and a diagnosis of congestive heart failure. Zook was put on oxygen, then \u2014 just four hours later \u2014 a BiPAP machine to help push air into the lungs. Multiple tests came back negative for COVID.<\/p>\n
Shortly after midnight on Jan. 7, the hospital called. Zook was in a medically induced coma and on a ventilator to help him breathe. But his blood pressure soon dropped and he was transferred to UC Irvine Medical Center. \u201cOn Friday I get a call, \u2018His kidneys are failing. He needs to be on dialysis. If not, he could die \u2014 but there\u2019s also a chance he might have a heart attack or stroke on dialysis because his blood pressure is so low,\u2019 \u201d Rochelle Zook said.<\/p>\n
By 4 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 9, Zook had gone \u201ccode blue\u201d twice and was snatched back from the brink of death. There was a third code blue in the afternoon. \u201cThey said if he went code blue a fourth time, he\u2019d have brain damage and be a vegetable if he survives,\u201d Rochelle Zook said.<\/p>\n
Later that day, Tim Zook died… …The Orange County coroner has said the cause of death is inconclusive…<\/p>\n
Zook\u2019s death comes on the heels of a Florida doctor who died on Jan. 3, weeks after getting his first Pfizer shot. Gregory Michael, a 56-year-old obstetrician and gynecologist in Miami Beach, suffered idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP), a rare immune disorder in which the blood doesn\u2019t clot normally. His death is under investigation.<\/p>\n
In California, Placer County officials said a man died shortly after receiving a COVID-19 vaccine on Jan. 21. They did not identify the vaccine or the person, but said he had tested positive for COVID in late December and that the vaccine was not given by the Placer County Public Health Department. Facebook posts say the man was a 56-year-old aide in a senior living facility. That death is under investigation as well.<\/p>\n