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Woman With Rare Disease Claims She's Now Blind And Bruised After Doctors Made Her Get 3 Vaccines

A 23-year-old Florida woman has been temporarily blinded and bruised after allegedly being required to receive multiple vaccines before a blood transfusion for a rare autoimmune disorder.

Alexis Lorenze was diagnosed with Paroxysmal Nocturnal Hemoglobinuria (PNH) in January.

The extremely rare condition affects approximately one in a million people, causing the immune system to attack and destroy red blood cells.

Alexis Lorenze was diagnosed with Paroxysmal Nocturnal Hemoglobinuria (PNH) in January. Todd Lorenze/Facebook

Earlier this month, Lorenze reportedly traveled to California for a transfusion to replenish her damaged blood cells.

Upon her arrival at UCI Medical, she claims doctors informed her that she could not receive the transfusion unless she first received vaccines for tetanus, pneumonia and meningitis, all administered simultaneously.

She said that within 10 minutes after the vaccinations, she began to experience alarming symptoms: her vision darkened in both eyes, her jaw locked, she began vomiting, and her body swelled and bruised.

Medical experts have voiced concerns about the potential dangers of administering multiple vaccines at once, especially in patients with autoimmune conditions like PNH as these patients can have heightened immune responses, leading to severe complications.

One such complication, cytokine storms, can cause the body to attack its own healthy tissues and organs. It can be life-threatening and lead to irreversible damage.

The extremely rare condition affects approximately one in a million people, causing the immune system to attack and destroy red blood cells. Todd Lorenze / Facebook

"While it's usually safe for most people to get these vaccines together, in her case, the immune response could have been too much and led to complications," Dr. Raj Dasgupta, chief medical advisor for Fortune Recommends Health, told Daily Mail.

"To avoid overloading her system, it would be reasonable to space out the vaccines and closely monitor for any worsening symptoms."

Doctors have suggested that the vaccines themselves were unlikely the direct cause of Lorenze's severe reactions, they suggested that her PNH condition may have been unstable, and the vaccinations could have triggered a flare-up or allergic reaction.

Earlier this month, Lorenze reportedly traveled to California for a transfusion to replenish her damaged blood cells and claims that she suffered a horrific reaction after doctors gave her three vaccines at once. Todd Lorenze/Facebook

"There's also the possibility that what she's experiencing isn't just from the vaccines," Dr. Dasgupta said.

"PNH can flare up on its own, and we have to consider whether the condition itself is behind her severe reaction. Both factors (her PNH and the vaccines) need to be carefully weighed when looking at what's happening."

Lorenze's case has sparked significant debate, particularly regarding the hospital's rationale for allegedly requiring the vaccines so urgently.

Vaccines for meningitis and pneumonia are often recommended for certain high-risk groups, including those undergoing immunotherapy, as they become more susceptible to infections. However, several medical experts questioned whether the vaccines were genuinely necessary prior to her transfusion.

In a series of viral TikTok videos, Lorenze claimed that she hadn't received any vaccines since childhood. Her family has claimed that the hospital insisted the vaccinations were mandatory for the transfusion, but some experts argue that this is not a standard requirement.

Lorenze's family is now seeking to transfer her to a private hospital in Los Angeles for further treatment, as she continues to experience pain and swelling.

Deadly Diseases

The Greek physician Hippocrates described the symptoms of pneumonia 2,400 years ago. But this affliction of the lungs still kills more people in the United States than any other infectious disease, taking 40,000 to 70,000 lives each year. It is the most common lethal nosocomial, or hospital-acquired, infection.

The term "pneumonia" describes a group of symptoms that may be caused by bacteria, viruses, parasites, or fungi. Pneumonia is a severe inflammation of the lungs in which the thin tissue around air spaces called alveoli swells and fills with fluid. Symptoms include shaking, chills, a rapidly rising fever, and sharp chest pain made worse by breathing and coughing. Pneumonia is a common cause of death among elderly people and young children whose immune systems are weakened or impaired in some way.

A common bacterium, Streptococcus pneumoniae, lives in the respiratory tract of 15 percent of the population without causing problems. It can spread pneumonia only if inhaled deeply into the lungs. The germ travels via droplets conveyed through coughing, sneezing, and even talking in close proximity. Bacterial pneumonia is most common in winter and spring, when upper respiratory tract infections are frequent. Pneumonia is also a common complication of influenza.

Most cases of bacterial pneumonia can be effectively treated with penicillin. Between 1936 and 1945, pneumonia death rates in the United States dropped approximately 40 percent with the greater availability of antibiotics. The more common viral pneumonia usually diminishes on its own, but all strains of pneumonia can be serious if neglected, and people should always seek medical supervision for their care.

Along with other acute respiratory infections, pneumonia is in a near tie with diarrheal diseases as a leading cause of death in children under 5 worldwide. It's estimated that pneumonia kills approximately two million children each year, with 40 percent of these deaths in Africa. More than two-thirds of pneumonia deaths among children in the developing world are caused by just two kinds of bacteria: Pneumoccoccus and Hemophilus influenzae.

Trained community health workers can dramatically reduce these deaths when they teach parents to identify the early signs of pneumonia: rapid breathing and violent shaking in the chest. At present, as many as two-thirds of children with acute respiratory infections are not treated by trained health providers. Even the simplest understanding of how to count the number of breaths a child takes per minute can help community health workers and parents recognize pneumonia and administer antibiotics if appropriate, or seek help at a clinic or hospital.

Time is often of the essence with pneumonia: Severe pneumonia can kill victims within hours as they literally drown in the fluids flooding their lungs. In Honduras, pneumonia treatment is part of a national, integrated community child care program that trains community volunteers to monitor children's growth, provide health education, and treat pneumonia and diarrhea.

A major contributing factor to respiratory infections is indoor air pollution. We tend to think of this type of air pollution as a problem in the industrialized world, but half of the world's people rely on dung, wood, crop waste, or coal for cooking and heating. These solid fuels cause high levels of particulate matter in the developing world that are 100 times higher than concentrations in the United States or Europe. Poor ventilation of smoke makes breathing difficult and exposes young children to severe respiratory infections. Reducing indoor air pollution may require switching to cleaner and more efficient fuels such as liquid petroleum, electricity, or solar power, and the cooperation of governments. Pneumonia is also a leading cause of immediate death among AIDS patients.

Vaccines against certain kinds of pneumonia exist for adults, but many high-risk patients do not routinely receive them. A relatively new pneumococcal vaccine for children called Prevnar, introduced by Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, has proved effective in the United States, dramatically reducing disease incidence by approximately 80 percent. But the $50-per-dose U.S. Price makes it far too expensive to be widely used in the developing world. Another H Flu (Hib) vaccine has also been found to be effective in field testing. International health economists are searching for a better way to fund lifesaving vaccines than relying on the free market alone.

Return to Deadly Diseases

What's Going Around: Pneumonia, COVID, Strep

HARRISBURG, Pa. (WHTM) – WellSpan Pediatric Medicine Physicians are seeing pneumonia, non-COVID upper respiratory illnesses and stomach bugs this week.

Pediatricians at Penn State Health Children's Hospital are seeing a lot of cases of COVID, a lot of colds and some stomach bugs. They are also seeing some strep throat and viral upper respiratory infections.

UPMC Children's Community Pediatrics reports a viral illness this week, with symptoms including cough, congestion and fever.

Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health Physicians Roseville Pediatrics reports an increase in walking pneumonia cases. Strep throat cases are still high and COVID cases continue to increase. They also saw the common cold and enterovirus.

Dr. Joan Thode offered the following advice about walking pneumonia:

"Walking pneumonia is the more commonly heard term to describe atypical pneumonia, which refers to an infectious inflammatory process dispersed throughout the lungs rather than being localized into a small single area of the lungs.

The term atypical pneumonia actually references the mycoplasma bacteria that cause the pneumonia, not that the pneumonia or the patient suffering it are atypical. What makes the bacteria not typical is its lack of a cell wall, making antibiotic choice very important.

Walking pneumonia is more common in the school-aged and teen pediatric populations than in young children and toddlers.

Walking pneumonia and the common cold can have overlapping symptoms of fever, headache, loss of appetite, and of course cough. The cough tends to be much worse with pneumonia than with a cold. The immune system of the lungs will attack the bacterial infection, which causes production of mucous as a defense. The cough with pneumonia will frequently sound wet as this increased mucous is being coughed up and cleared. Even after the bacteria has been killed by the immune system and antibiotics, the accumulated mucus in the lungs needs to be cleared, so the cough can sometimes persist for a week after the acute infection is gone.

For walking pneumonia, antibiotics are typically prescribed. The choice of medication and dose will depend on the individual child's exam findings and weight."

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