AdverseReaction

32 year-old-Canadian with NO allergies
almost dies from allergic reaction to shot
<CBC I menu *
P.E.I. woman hospitalized over 'extremely rare'
COVID-19 vaccine allergy shares her story
Sara Fraser CBC News Posted: Apr 06, 2021 6:00 AM AT | Last Updated: April 6
The 32-year-old had no known allergies, but sometimes felt slightly unwell after annual flu shots,
so staff at the King’s County Memorial Hospital in Montague, P.E.I., flagged her to wait 30
minutes after her Pfizer-BioNTech shot instead of the usual 15, to make sure she would be all
right.
It didn't take that long before she became very ill. The roof of her mouth itched, her tongue
swelled and she became confused.
"I don’t remember everything, but I remember looking around and seeing the nurses so
concerned," she said.
Toni Lannigan, shown in an engagement photo with her fiance, says she i!
serious allergic reaction to the Pfizer BioN-Tech vaccine. (Tracy Stewart)
Luckily, the emergency department was just steps away and staff rushed her there, where she
said her heart began to race, her blood pressure dropped dramatically and she began having
sharp pelvic pains.
Last week, Toni Lannigan's excitement over getting her COVID-1S
panic.
She remembers being treated with epinephrine, a drug used to treat severe allergic reactions,
and starting to shake uncontrollably. An ambulance took her to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in
Charlottetown, where she was admitted to intensive care.
Back home in rural Montague, she said the vision in one eye is still severely blurred — her doctor
is keeping an eye on that — and she is weak, extremely nervous and jumpy. Her head aches, she
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"Do I feel like myself? Absolutely not. I’m a very bubbly kind of girl — I don't feel that. I feel very
nervous or on edge, and I don’t know why," she said. "My nerves are shot."
Lannigan is glad her vaccine was administered at a hospital, not one of P.E.I.'s mass clinics.
"Would I have made it to where I needed to be?" she wondered, if she had gotten the needle
somewhere else.
”1 couldn't really get any answers as to why that happened. And I still don't have any answers,'
Lannigan said. She^wouldJike^oJmow^whatvaccmejn^redientcausedjTerreaction^nd^wh^