A student who suffered blood clots after getting her second Covid-19 vaccine dose which led to her left leg being amputated has since died of a haemorrhagic stroke following brain surgery.
Ketsiree Kongkaew, 20, a student at Phangnga Community College, died on Monday morning at Songklanagarind Hospital, local authorities said yesterday.
She was initially inoculated with Sinovac and then given AstraZeneca.
Her grandmother Harlia Kongkaew, 85, of Ban Thadan village in Muang district of Phangnga collected the young woman's body from Songkhlanagarind Hospital on Monday afternoon for Islamic funeral rites in Ao Luk district of Krabi province.
The elderly lady runs a small grocery shop in Ban Thadan and her granddaughter lived with her there.
Adul Chuthong, the Muang Phangnga district chief, led local officials and teachers in offering moral support to the deceased's relatives. Ketsiree's body was to be interred at Ban Bagan burial ground in Au Luk district.
Anupong Thammarong, 25, a friend of Ketsiree from the same village, said a doctor from Songklanagarind Hospital had phoned the grandmother late on Friday night, asking for permission to perform surgery. The doctor said Ketsiree had bleeding in her brain.
After the operation, the young woman remained unconscious. She was relying on a ventilator to breathe but was later pronounced dead on Monday morning after the stroke.
The doctors said the brain haemorrhage was a side effect of the thrombolytic drugs used to treat blood clots, Mr Anupong said.
Ketsiree was reported to have earlier suffered an acute arterial occlusion, or blockage of a limb artery, after receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine as her second shot. According to Jamras Khanadpol, director of Phangnga Community College, she began feeling unwell after that shot was administered on Aug 13.
She complained of a fever and chest pains about three days later, Mr Anupong said. Ketsiree went to see a doctor at Phangnga Hospital, who diagnosed her with a bladder infection.
She was later rushed back to the hospital after she experienced severe pain in her left leg. She was referred to Surat Thani Hospital, where an X-ray revealed blood clots that required urgent surgery.
She was later transferred to Songklanagarind Hospital in Hat Yai, where her leg was amputated.
The National Health Security Office has given Ketsiree's family financial assistance totalling 400,000 baht.