A Florida woman claims she was left temporarily blind and with agonizing swelling and bruising after doctors forced her to take vaccines for a rare blood disease.
Alexis Lorenze, 23, was diagnosed with Paroxysmal Nocturnal Hemoglobinuria (PNH) in January, a one-in-a-million autoimmune condition which causes the body’s immune system to attack her red blood cells.
Ms Lorenze traveled to California earlier this month for a transfusion to replenish the damaged cells, where she claims doctors at UCI Medical refused to administer it unless she received vaccines for tetanus, pneumonia, and meningitis ‘all at once.’
But she claims within 10 minutes, her vision went dark in both eyes, her jaw locked in place, and she started vomiting. She has also suffered hemorrhaging under her skin and severe swelling.
Alexis Lorenze, 23, claims that she suffered a severe reaction after receiving three vaccines at once before she could have a blood transfusion
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Doctors told DailyMail.com that ‘it’s asking for trouble’ to give a patient so many vaccines at once when they have an autoimmune condition like PNH, as it can trigger a ‘disastrous’ and potentially ‘life-threatening’ response.
This is because extreme immune overreactions, also known as cytokine storms, can lead to the body attacking otherwise healthy organs and blood supply to them getting cut off. This can lead to potentially irreversible organ damage and death.
However, they noted it’s unlikely the components in the vaccines themselves lead to Ms Lorenze’s condition.
Rather, it’s more likely her illness was not under control and flared up in response to the vaccines, as they can trigger immune responses in patients with PNH.
Dr Stuart Fischer, an internal medicine physician in New York, told DailyMail.com: ‘To give three vaccines – even one – I feel is a little bit risky.’
It’s unclear exactly why the hospital allegedly wanted to give her the vaccines immediately at the same time.
Dr Raj Dasgupta, chief medical advisor for Fortune Recommends Health, told DailyMail.com: ‘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.
‘To avoid overloading her system, it would be reasonable to space out the vaccines and closely monitor for any worsening symptoms.’
Several of these vaccines, such as meningitis, are required in US schools, while others like tetanus are recommended every 10 years and after suffering a puncture wound.
The pneumonia vaccine, however, is only recommended for young children, older adults, and those who are immunocompromised, as these groups are more susceptible to the illness.
DailyMail.com has reached out to UCI Medical and Ms Lorenze’s family for comment, but has not received a response from either.
In a series of viral TikTok videos, Ms Lorenze claims she was diagnosed with PNH in January 2024. This is caused by an acquired mutation of the PIGA gene, which damages red blood cells.
Normally, red blood cells help carry oxygen from the lungs to other parts of the body using the protein hemoglobin.
But in patients with PNH, hemoglobin cannot typically break down, so the protein overwhelms organs like the kidneys and can lead to blood clots, which can turn into strokes or heart attacks.
Ms Lorenze claims she had not received any vaccines since childhood.
She is one of the nearly 14,000 Americans who have reported vaccine injuries to the Health Resources and Services Administration’s Countermeasures Injury Compensation Program (CICP).
A video on Ms Lorenze’s Facebook shows a conversation between her and a woman identified as a nurse.
In the video, the alleged medical professional said doctors do not believe her condition is an allergic reaction but instead the result of her condition being aggravated by the vaccines.
Dr Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, told DailyMail.com while he was not comfortable commenting on Ms Lorenze’s case specifically, severe effects like these are likely not due to the vaccines themselves.
The 23-year-old claims she was given vaccines for tetanus, meningitis and pneumonia as part of her treatment at UCI Medical in Orange, California
Ms Lorenze claims that within 10 minutes of getting the vaccines, she temporarily went blind, her jaw locked up, and she started vomiting.
‘If something happens immediately, like within five minutes, it’s usually an allergic reaction,’ he said. ‘It’s not because of the vaccine itself. It’s because of maybe a component of the vaccine that causes an allergic reaction.’
Dr Fischer also noted it appears to be PNH itself reacting to the vaccines but suggested the alleged ‘superdose’ could be particularly dangerous for a patient with this condition.
‘In someone with an immune-related illness, it could be disastrous,’ he said.
Dr Gloria Gerber, a hematologist and assistant professor at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, told DailyMail.com that it’s possible that the vaccines could have exacerbated Ms Lorenze’s PNH by accelerating the breakdown of red blood cells.
A risk of giving so many vaccines or medications at once is that in the event of a reaction, it can be difficult to confirm which one was the culprit.
Dr Fischer gave the example of a patient receiving three medications at once: ‘You give them all in one day, and the next day, the patient has a reaction? Which of those three things caused the reaction?
‘Unfortunately, the patient has to be considered allergic to all three medications at once.
‘Giving three vaccines at once, honestly, I don’t think I’ve heard of at all. What’s the hurry? What’s the emergency of giving the three vaccines at once when you could do one and wait a little bit? She’s obviously very sensitive because of her illness.
‘Doing multiple things at the same time is very risky business, and risky business has no place in medicine.’
Todd Lorenze, Ms Lorenze’s father, said on social media that the family is hoping to have her transferred to a private hospital in Los Angeles
Mr Lorenze said on Facebook that his daughter’s condition is slightly improving, though she is in severe pain
According to the Aplastic Anemia and MDS International Foundation (AAMDS), patients with PNS should receive routine vaccines, as blood transfusions can weaken the immune system.
Routine vaccinations typically include those for MMR, flu, HPV, tetanus, and hepatitis, among others, according to the CDC.
Ms Lorenze’s family claims the doctors told them the vaccines were required for her to receive the transfusion. It’s unclear how soon they planned to do the transfusion after.
‘I don’t see why you would need to be vaccinated for a transfusion,’ Dr Gerber said, as vaccines are not typically required for this treatment.
However, shots for conditions like meningitis and sometimes pneumonia are typically required for PNH’s standard treatment, complement inhibitors.
This is an immunotherapy used keep the immune system from destroying red blood cells.
She noted the hospital may have been planning to start Ms Lorenze on complement inhibitors, which could prompt the vaccine requirement, as the treatment leaves PNH patients more susceptible to certain infections.
Additionally, she said if patients are experiencing symptoms like anemia that are severe enough to require a blood transfusion, this would be an indication to start complement inhibitors, and ‘you want to start a complement inhibitor urgently’ if there is a complication like blood clots.
This could have been a reason behind the urgency to give Ms Lorenze the vaccines at once.
However, vaccines – along with factors like infection and pregnancy – are known to trigger extreme immune responses in PNH patients who are not being treated with complement inhibitors.
It’s all possible, Dr Gasgupta said, that Ms Lorenze’s condition could have nothing to do with the vaccines at all.
‘There’s also the possibility that what she’s experiencing isn’t just from the vaccines,’ he 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.’
Ms Lorenze also claims she temporarily went blind immediately after the vaccines were administered.
Dr Offit noted that while some patients may faint after a vaccine or become lightheaded, ‘I haven’t heard blindness associated with an allergic reaction,’ if that is what happened.
‘Her blood pressure might have gone down, which is understandable in having a reaction to whatever this is, ‘ Dr Fischer said. ‘If she has normal blood pressure, blood loss [from her condition] could make her dizzy, and she might even get near fainting.’
‘Near fainting can often cause momentary visual loss. There’s nothing intrinsic in the vaccine that causes blindness.’
The vision loss, however, could have been triggered by PNH itself. Dr Gerber noted that ‘one of the most devastating complications in PNH is thrombosis,’ or a blood clot within a blood vessel.
‘PNH patients can get clots in atypical places,’ she noted, such as abdominal organs like the liver, the skin, and even the eyes.
Left untreated, these could result in liver failure or stroke, depending on the location of the vessel.
It is possible that with PNH, Dr Gerber said, patients may have thrombosis in the retinal vessel of the eyes or a brain vessel, which could explain the vision changes.
According to Facebook updates from Ms Lorenze’s father, Todd Lorenze, the family is trying to move Ms Lorenze to a private hospital in Los Angeles.
Mr Lorenze wrote on Facebook that his daughter is in ‘very bad’ pain, though her swelling is going down.
