Young man had to have his gallbladder removed because of Covid vaccine

Discussion in 'Coronavirus Pandemic Discussions' started by kazenatsu, Oct 11, 2024.

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  1. kazenatsu

    kazenatsu Well-Known Member Donor

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    I want to share a story with you.

    This story was relayed to me indirectly from my housecleaner.

    Her adult son's gallbladder shut down and they ended up having to remove it. The doctors believed it was probably a result of the Covid vaccine.
    (he was in his late 20s at the time, lives in Centralia, WA)

    I'm thinking it might have been due to some clotting, which ended up affecting the gallbladder. But of course it's possible this might have just been a coincidence and had nothing to do with the vaccine he had recently received. But it is highly unusual for someone (especially a male) at this age to have to have their gallbladder removed. It was an unusual medical condition, and the doctor apparently could not think of any likely possible cause other than the Covid vaccine he had recently received.

    I did find this, so apparently it would not be the first case:
    Acute acalculous cholecystitis following COVID-19 vaccination: a case report, Fabien Mukonki Kyungu (2022)
    (Acute acalculous cholecystitis is an acute inflammation of the gallbladder)

    It's very possible this vaccine had led to all sorts of medical problems and issues, of so many different types that it's difficult to keep track of them all.
     
    Last edited: Oct 11, 2024
  2. Betamax101

    Betamax101 Well-Known Member

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    Doubtful, acalculous cholecystitis is probably the cause. It IS an extremely rare side-effect of intravenous injections, but there are many other causes.
    There are other causes:
    Acalculous Cholecystitis - an overview | ScienceDirect Topics

    "In the present case, contrary to Mattone et al. [8] and Ying et al. [9], the subject was a young 29-year-old man, tested negative to COVID-19 PCR test, with no underlying conditions, diagnosed with acute acalculous cholecystitis following COVID-19 vaccine inoculation. In addition, about 7.98 million doses of the Janssen COVID-19 vaccine that were administrated from March 2nd to April 21, 2021 in United States of America, no case of acute acalculous cholecystitis among vaccine recipients was reported by the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) [5]. We suppose that acute acalculous cholecystitis is likely to be a new adverse event of Janssen COVID-19 vaccine.

    Conclusion
    Acute acalculous cholecystitis is likely to be induced by COVID-19 infection in rare cases reported in elderly subjects. We have reported a case of acute acalculous cholecystitis in a young subject with no COVID-19 infection following Janssen COVID-19 vaccine inoculation. We think that this vaccine in rare case could induce the disease and therefore could be a new adverse event of this vaccine."

    It's more possible that it hasn't because they ARE kept track of.
     
  3. kazenatsu

    kazenatsu Well-Known Member Donor

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    If the Covid vaccine did gallbladder issues, we would therefore suspect to see some significant increase in the number of gallbladder surgeries being performed.

    Ideally, I think, we would want to compare the statistics for the years 2017 and 2018 (before the pandemic) with the year 2021 (right after the Covid vaccine became widespread).

    Unfortunately it seems difficult to find exact statistics by year.

    Some statistics:

    "Between 1988-1994 and 2017-March 2020, gallstone disease prevalence increased from 7.4% to 13.9% and gallbladder surgery from 6.0% to 11.6%."

    Increasing gallstone disease prevalence and associations with gallbladder and biliary tract mortality in the US, Aynur Unalp-Arida, 2023

    "Gallbladder surgeries have increased in recent years for biliary dyskinesia, or functional gallbladder disorder, ..."
    " 'When you see the number of cases of surgery increasing, you just want to make sure that it’s being done for the right indications and that the patients are benefiting, but that's where there were so many gaps in the data,' said Dr. Bryan Richmond, chair and professor at the WVU School of Medicine Charleston Campus Department of Surgery."

    WVU researcher says more validation needed for increase in gallbladder surgeries, August 20, 2024


    "Furthermore, over 500,000 laparoscopic cholecystectomies are performed annually in the U.S., ..."
    Update: Gallbladder Disease and Cholecystectomies, Active Component, U.S. Armed Forces, 2014-2018 , Health.mil, December 1, 2019

    "In 2021, 1.3 million laparoscopic cholecystectomies were performed in the United States, making it one of the most common surgeries."
    Evidence-based surgery for laparoscopic cholecystectomy, Andrea T. Fisher, MD, Surg Open Sci. 2022

    The Covid vaccines began in early 2021. (actually as early as December 2020 )

    "Recently, surgeons are seeing another increase in the number of gallbladder removals, both nationwide and in our local community."
    Gallbladder Disease - A Modern Illness on the Rise, Thomas H. Lewis, MD, Brattleboro Memorial Hospital, Vermont
     
  4. Betamax101

    Betamax101 Well-Known Member

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    Hmmm. ibid.
    "Gallbladder disease is linked to two health problems that are on the rise in young people: obesity and diabetes. So it is not a surprise that numbers are trending upwards. "
     
  5. kazenatsu

    kazenatsu Well-Known Member Donor

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    Yes, unhealthy living could possibly be the cause. But I wasn't able to really find specific statistics by exact year.

    Still, could obesity and diabetes really result in a doubling of these surgeries between 2018 and 2021, as my sources possibly suggest?
     
  6. Betamax101

    Betamax101 Well-Known Member

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    I'm not interested in doing this for you. The reasons for increased instances was given in your paper cited. Plus SARS2 causes problems with numerous organs:
    Evidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection in gallbladder and aggravating cholecystitis to septic shock: a case report - PMC (nih.gov)

    Covid viral infection plus have you checked your source?
    The reference for this was
    4. Tsui C., Klein R., Garabrant M. Minimally invasive surgery: national trends in adoption and future directions for hospital strategy. Surg Endosc. 2013;27:2253–2257. doi: 10.1007/s00464-013-2973-9. [PubMed] [CrossRef] [Google Scholar]

    Now have a look at the date it was published - 2013!

    However after looking around I can see a whole variance of figures 1.2 million being the highest and 300,000 the lowest. The problem appears to be the person doing the counting.
    2006
    Gallbladder surgery - Harvard Health
    "Each year, about a million Americans have their gallbladders surgically removed because the organ has become inflamed (cholecystitis) or contains gallstones."
     
    Last edited: Oct 11, 2024
  7. kazenatsu

    kazenatsu Well-Known Member Donor

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    No, they weren't. You seem to have trouble differentiating between opinion and fact. The paper suggested possible reasons, which were considered "likely" by author, but without any specific logical justification or even mathematical analysis to support the assumptions.

    If a paper or news article tells you what the "reasons" are, and does so in a casual way, that does not make those reasons "fact". That is simply OPINION, and often a very casual "non-expert" opinion, at that.

    That's a good catch. Yes, I guess that statistic wouldn't be relevant then.

    If you can find more recent statistics, that would be welcomed.
     
    Last edited: Oct 11, 2024
  8. Betamax101

    Betamax101 Well-Known Member

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    No need to get snotty about it! The OPINION was from a medical doctor in the field. That works for me!
    When a medical professional in the field gives it, it isn't "casual"!
    Go back and look at the edit I made. 2006 "about a million".
     
  9. kazenatsu

    kazenatsu Well-Known Member Donor

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    It's possible then that no one has observed any correlation because the available statistics about this are too sparse, unreliable, and inconsistent.

    To actually be able to even begin to draw the conclusion that the vaccine might be correlated with higher rates of gallbladder surgery, we would have to have precise statistics that would allow us to compare between different specific selected years. And it seems like that may not be easily available.
     
  10. Betamax101

    Betamax101 Well-Known Member

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  11. kazenatsu

    kazenatsu Well-Known Member Donor

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    I believe you are totally committing an "expert" fallacy there.
    Your assumption is not logical.

    You're committing a very casual assumption, assuming that just because this is a medical doctor specializing in gallbladder surgery, that somehow he would certainly know, or that his intuitive speculation about this would likely be accurate.
    But I think unless someone had worked with specific survey research and statistical analysis directly relating to this question, their "expert opinion" on the reasons (for the statistical change) should not hold too much weight.
    The Covid vaccine wasn't mentioned, so we do not know if he even considered the Covid vaccine as a possible potential cause in his opinion and thought process.
     
    Last edited: Oct 11, 2024
  12. Betamax101

    Betamax101 Well-Known Member

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    Bearing in mind that this thread started with hearsay and an extremely rare potential side-effect and also that you have failed to even acknowledge the effects of the virus on the gall-bladder, it appears you don't have a lot to go one here.
     
  13. Betamax101

    Betamax101 Well-Known Member

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    Your opinion is noted and wrong. Medical experts who express opinions are not logical fallacies!
    HOGWASH. You are arm waving medical opinion away, opinion made with no possible ulterior motive.
     
    Last edited: Oct 11, 2024
  14. Betamax101

    Betamax101 Well-Known Member

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    THAT should put this whole line of argument to rest. 2006 - Harvard said a million. 2109 - just under a million.
     
  15. kazenatsu

    kazenatsu Well-Known Member Donor

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    "Trust the experts" - Even if their expertise is not actually truly so relevant directly to the question at hand.

    That's called a casual logical fallacy.
     
  16. Betamax101

    Betamax101 Well-Known Member

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    What a total crock!
    ibid.
    Dr. Thomas H. Lewis is a board-certified surgeon and a Fellow in the American College of Surgeons. He practices jointly with Dr. Gregory Gadowski and Dr. Joseph Rosen at Brattleboro General Surgery, a member of BMH Physician Group.

    Frontiers | The increasing incidence and high body mass index-related burden of gallbladder and biliary diseases–A results from global burden of disease study 2019 (frontiersin.org)


    The Growing Global Burden of Gallstone Disease | World Gastroenterology
    "Obesity
    Obesity is a major risk factor for cholesterol GD, due to the increased hepatic cholesterol synthesis (via increased HMGCoA reductase activity) and biliary cholesterol excretion. The risk is higher in women and very high in morbidly obese individuals. Multiple weight cycling and rapid weight loss (e.g. after bariatric surgery) enhance the gallstone risk. An increase of the body mass index between 1980 and 2008 has been documented worldwide, with great variations in different countries. In 2008, an estimated 1.46 billion adults were overweight, and of these, 500 millions were obese 17. The most dramatic obesity epidemic has been observed in the United States: in 1990 no state had an obesity prevalence equal to or higher than 15%; while in 2010 obesity was present in more than 25% of the adult population in half of the country’s states 18.

    Diabetes mellitus
    Type 2 diabetes is associated with an increased risk for GD. An increased cholesterol secretion into bile and gallbladder stasis, due to neuropathy, may explain the higher proportion of gallstone carriers among diabetics. Due to population growth, urbanization, aging and the increasing frequency of obesity and sedentary lifestyle, diabetes will continue to be a major health problem in developed countries and a growing problem in developing countries 19, 20. At the global level, the number of people with diabetes increased from 153 million in 1980 to 347 million in 2008 19. Accordingly, the age-standardized adult diabetes prevalence rate was significantly higher in 2008 (9.8% in men and 9.2% in women) than in 1980 (8.3% and 7.5%, respectively).""
     
    Last edited: Oct 11, 2024

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