On January 29, Dr. Bussel sent Ms. Legaspi’s doctor, Dr. Niriksha Chandrani, an email labeled “my strong recommendations”, noting that he was “very afraid” that Ms. Legaspi would have a cerebral hemorrhage, and advising a different course of treatment. Dr. Chandrani, head of oncology at Elmhurst, realized that Dr. Bussel was a leading authority on platelet disorders and followed his advice.
She spent several sleepless nights worrying about Mrs. Legaspi.
“I didn’t want her to die,” said Chandrani.
A day later, Legaspi’s platelet count reached 6,000: “Slow but steady progress,” said Bussel. The next morning, there were 40,000, which took her out of the danger zone. Two days later, on February 1, there were 71,000.
It is impossible to say whether the new treatments worked, whether the initial ones worked or whether she recovered on her own. But on February 2, she returned from the hospital to the Queens apartment she shares with her daughter and 7-year-old grandson. On February 4, his daughter said, Legaspi’s platelet count was 293,000.
Another recipient of the vaccine, Sarah C., 48, a professor in Arlington, Texas, received the Modern vaccine on January 3. She asked that her full name not be used to protect her privacy.
Two weeks later, she started to experience heavy vaginal bleeding. After two days, she went to the obstetrician, who ordered blood tests and scheduled other tests. A few hours later, he called and asked her to go straight to the ER. He was stunned and expected it to be a lab error, but her blood count showed no platelets. She had had a checkup with completely normal blood test results less than a week before being vaccinated.