In an exclusive interview with The Defender, Hayley Lopez, who developed postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome at age 29 after her first dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine, can no longer work at the job she loves because she can’t pass the required medical tests.
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At 29, Hayley Lopez had a promising career she had worked 12 years to achieve, as an air traffic controller at one of the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) busiest facilities in the U.S.
On Oct. 8, 2021, that career came crashing to a halt 15 minutes after Lopez got her first, and only, dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine.
In an exclusive interview with The Defender, Lopez, now 30, shared her story, including the injuries she sustained and the challenges she experienced trying to get a diagnosis and treatment.
“About 15 minutes after the shot, I noticed arm and chest pain,” Lopez said. “Then, I noticed dizziness, shortness of breath, memory issues and stuttering within three days — and that’s when I knew something was really wrong.”
Lopez sought help at an urgent care facility, and while there, she said, drifted in and out of consciousness.
“My other symptoms include twitching, nerve pain, fatigue, high blood pressure, high heart rate, palpitations, lightheadedness, a feeling of vertigo and migraines,” Lopez said.
“I still suffer from all symptoms now, eight months later.”
Lopez didn’t want the vaccine, but under the Biden administration’s executive order, federal workers were required to get the vaccine or be fired.
“I want people to know that I was just a normal, healthy 29-year-old trying to navigate life,” Lopez said.
“I worked very hard to get to where I am in my career and at the time, I felt as though my world would end if I lost my job. I got the shot to keep my job and now it may end my career.”
For Lopez, the symptoms she experienced almost immediately after receiving the Pfizer shot were just part of her troubles. She also had difficulty locating a doctor who could diagnose her condition and who wouldn’t dismiss her concerns that the symptoms were vaccine-related.
“I could honestly go on and on about the healthcare system and how terrible you’re treated when you are vaccine-injured,” Lopez said. “I went to a total of 32 appointments with 17 different doctors in seven months.”
The first two doctors she saw in urgent care told her it was a coincidence that the symptoms developed immediately after the vaccine.
“They seemed more concerned with assuring me it wasn’t from the vaccine than treating me,” she said.
Some of the “diagnoses” she received were dismissive — just “stress-related,” doctors told her — while others bordered on sexist.
“My tests kept coming back normal so my doctor assumed it was ‘just anxiety,’” Lopez said. “I was even told by specialists that it was because of ‘my cycle’ and that ‘a lot of women have the same complaints.’”
According to Lopez, she received a series of misdiagnoses, including costochondritis, multisystem inflammatory syndrome, long COVID, anxiety and depression.
“I left every doctor’s appointment with tears in my eyes because I knew they were wrong,” Lopez said. “I knew something was wrong with me and I knew it wasn’t just in my head.”
Lopez got a diagnosis after she happened to read about postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), a condition that affects blood flow and can result in symptoms such as lightheadedness, fainting and increased heartbeat, symptoms which appear when standing up from a reclined position.
“The first time I read about POTS, I cried because it was like reading about myself,” Lopez said. “I discovered POTS on my own. I did not get any information or guidance from a doctor.”
When she finally went to a doctor who specializes in POTS, “He knew right away that I had POTS and understood my struggles with previous doctors, because all his POTS patients go through the same things,” Lopez said.
POTS has prevented Lopez from working, she said:
“I am still employed by the FAA, but I am unable to work. I have to maintain a medical clearance, same as airline pilots, to do my job.
“My medical clearance has been taken away and I don’t know if I’ll ever get it back.
“I got the shot to keep the job that I love and now that same shot is keeping me from medically being able to do my job.”
Lopez received some financial support from the federal worker’s compensation program — 45 days of continuation of pay — as the injuries she sustained were deemed a workplace injury. However, she is still awaiting approval for further compensation beyond the initial 45 days.
Lopez reported her injuries to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS). She heard back from VAERS “about six months after I reported it, and they requested current information about my vaccine injury.”
However, as of this writing, one of the misdiagnoses she received continues to appear on her VAERS file.
“My condition hasn’t been updated in VAERS since I sent in additional information at their request almost two months ago.” The report still lists her misdiagnosis, she said.
The latest available data from VAERS show 429 reports of POTS with 310 cases attributed to Pfizer, 99 reports attributed to Moderna and 20 reports to Johnson & Johnson. The reports were submitted between Dec. 14, 2020, and June 3, 2022.
Lopez said her injuries continue to impact “every aspect” of her life.
“On a bad day, I have trouble walking from the couch to my kitchen to get a glass of water,” she said. “On a good day, I can’t walk for more than two minutes, so I can’t go to the store or take my dog for a walk. I’m lucky if I’m able to cook dinner.”
She even has trouble speaking. “I often stop mid-sentence because I forgot what I was talking about or [have] forgotten a simple word.”
Because she has fainting spells, she can shower only when her husband is home, she said.
“I wear a wrist monitor for my heart rate and [have] fall detection to alert my husband if I faint.”
In addition to working as an air traffic controller, Lopez was a private pilot and enjoyed flying. She has not been able to engage in that activity either following her vaccination.
“I have not been able to fly — the medical clearances for air traffic controllers and pilots are the same certificate,” she said.
Her vaccine injuries also affected relationships with people who were previously close to her.
“I have lost people close to me because they either don’t want to hear or believe that the vaccine can cause harm, or they just don’t care,” she said.
While Lopez said she is unaware of any other air traffic controllers who have had a similar experience to hers, she is aware of “a few pilots” injured by the vaccines.
“I’m sure there are many people within the aviation industry afraid to come forward with vaccine injuries, as they will lose their medical clearances and in turn, lose their jobs.”
For Lopez, her experience illuminates the importance of raising awareness of vaccine injuries, and of conditions such as POTS.
“Awareness for POTS needs to be spread throughout the medical community,” she said. “The only thing that’s rare about vaccine injury is that it’s rarely talked about. POTS has no cure and can be lifelong.”
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Safe & Effective BUT FOR WHO ?
We do not have a one size fits all world .
No doubt many people are not having a problem with this foolish endeavor mounted by Big Government Big Pharma and Big Money the WEF !
Short and long term problems keep popping up .
Lyme disease flares back up in 25% of people who were in remission and it comes on with an acute vengeance ! You won’t hear that from the CDC !
Cytokines storm can occur at any time thanks to your immune system producing spike proteins with the ability to turn internal organs to liquid shit !
Sure maybe not you but what if ?
Oh that’s right you had a choice lose your job be denied unemployment because you refused to comply .
Sadly now we know the frustrations of complying with parasitic pieces of shit collecting a WHITEHOUSE , CONGRESSIONAL AND OF COURSE A CDC & NIH PAYCHECK
They don’t give a shit about you at all !
It’s not a bug, it’s a feature.
An air traffic controller ought to possess critical thinking skills.
Why would anyone inject a cocktail no pharma company is willing to be responsible for?
It was compulsory if you remember, Joe. Same for military and other civil service. Even some FedGov contractors were going to have mandatory shots.
Only the US Postal Service dodged the compulsory shot albeit many, many months after the initial onslaught of job pressure and threats of firing.
Anyone at TBP know if the shot is still mandatory at FedGov and your StateGov?
The clotshot isn’t mandatory, nor is CoVid testing, to work for the DOE.
But it is mandatory for Biden-appointed DOE Executives to have kinky credentials that meet or exceed Sam Brinton’s, a non-binary drag queen puppy fucker.
Even at the time, I didn’t understand how it was that the USPS was exempt from the jab … almost as if someone knew what would happen to the many tens of thousands of letter carriers and sorters and such that would likely end all mail delivery service — and then too many questions would get asked that no one would want to answer.
On the plus side, she probably doesn’t have to worry about the Roe v Wade case being overruled.
When I asked my (newly discovered MDN (Naturalist) if he would prescribe Ivermectin for me if I got the virus he held up his hands as if I pointed a gun at him. It was obvious he had been gotten to. It was there and then I became my own doctor. We’re on our own. What happened to this beautiful young lady is a Nuremberg style crime against humanity.
I had a horrible cough for 2 days with burning chest. I took 3 Ivermectins and I slept without a single cough last night.
Good for you, GNL. Glad to hear. I have an emergency stash also.
Hayley,
You’ll never get your medical clearance back.
But on the bright side you’ll be driven into bankruptcy and die an early death.
So cheer up and look forward to a very interesting albeit short life.
Honestly, my heart is crushed by the millions of stories like hers. The black humor above is my coping mechanism for the horror of it all.
The perpetrators are free and wealthy on the pain, suffering and death of millions.
This can’t go unpunished.
… and yet it does — and will …
Middle class white woman.
Not to be cruel, but I wonder who she voted for.
Let’s Go Brandon!!!
She has a nice chin.
Which one?
No sympathy whatsoever. If ya gonna sell your soul, you pay the piper. I’m in a pissy mood so fuc these people that just willingly bend over to get ass fuced. If the Feds told her she needed to sacrifice her first born to keep her job she would have at least given it serious consideration. She complied to preserve her precious CAREER but ended up losing it. She got what she deserved for being shallow, narcissistic, goverment paid sellout.
Being a government employee, she will get full medical retirement benefits. Something the average working person probably does not have access to.
Bullseye.
And I’m not in a pissy mood.
There’s a price for lack of critical thinking skills or the conviction to use them.
The sob stories about people damaged by their own choices are really getting old.
Something she got off’n the terlet?
POTS sounds like the precursor to the SADS, (Sudden Adult Death Syndrome) , of course that has nothing to do with the vaxx either.
There but by the grace of God go I.
My 61 year old jabbed sister has contracted covid twice AFTER getting jabbed. She told us yesterday that she now has a 9mm lump in her left breast. Coincidence?
Safe and effective. Safe for the drug companies as they are immune to prosecution, effective because they are effective at killing and injuring people.
As an aside, there’s little chance any of the victims who are ‘dying in their sleep’ are actually asleep at the time.
They may die in their beds, but not in their sleep.
How would this not wake you up? What a horrifying way to go:
Gosh what did I just see here? What was he swatting at?
LOL @ Lopez.
Good, maaybe next time she’ll do the 5 minutes of research it takes to make a rational decison about her long term health.
LOL @ rational decision. Then I remembered, Lopez. So much for rational decison making.