A “super healthy” teen equestrian competitor who was hospitalized last week with blood clots in her chest has blamed the potentially “life-changing” injuries on the Pfizer vaccine.
However, authorities have not confirmed her condition is connected to the Pfizer shot – which to date has not been linked to blood clotting issues as a known side effect in Australia – with NSW Health urging the public to “use credible sources of information”.
Cienna Knowles from the NSW Central Coast shared her experience in a series of viral social media posts, writing that she “never wanted” the Covid-19 vaccine as she was scared of side effects, but ultimately got it to keep her job.
The 19-year-old, who has more than 30,000 followers across Instagram and TikTok, said she fell ill after receiving her second Pfizer dose last Thursday.
She was taken to Gosford Hospital where scans discovered blood clots in her legs, stomach and lungs.
“Crazy how quickly I went from a super healthy 19-year-old kid who’s never had any form of health issues ever – working a full-time job, training and riding horses every day – to having it all taken away from me after my second Pfizer vaccination,” Ms Knowles wrote on Facebook over the weekend.
“My lungs are full of blood clots and heart’s under stress.
“My new normal [is] now having a pulmonologist doctor, cardiologist doctor, blood tests, full-body scans, ultrasounds on my heart and lungs. Over a vaccination I got to do the right thing and I never wanted to get because I was genuinely scared of running the risk.
“I wish I had never gotten it and I could have my healthy body back.”
On Monday she wrote on Instagram that the clots in her lungs were the equivalent of “having broken ribs” and made it painful to breathe.
“As part of my treatment for my recovery I am now medicated and never have been in my life, as a result of these I have internal bleeding and nose bleeds as one of the side effects of my medications along with a line of other things I choose to keep private,” she wrote.
She shared a side-by-side image of her before and after in her hospital bed.
“Crazy to think to the left pic I was turfing with my family riding horses and the next pic is me just after my vaccination,” she wrote.