(NewsNation) — Army National Guard Specialist Karoline Stancik, 24, says she’s in $70,000 of medical debt after being hospitalized for heart complications.
She suffered three heart attacks and a stroke after receiving the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine. Stancik and veterans advocate Jeremy Sorenson joined NewsNation’s Chris Cuomo on Monday to discuss.
Stancik said she needed an “emergency pacemaker surgery” and that she has “multiple letters” from doctors who “have stated that the vaccine was the issue.”
Stancik was released from active duty in 2022, which cost her medical benefits and a salary. Stancik denied ever being counseled about an option to remain on active duty while receiving treatment.
Sorenson said he “wasn’t surprised.”
“I’ve seen so many of these cases of the Department of Defense, specifically the National Guard, denying that injuries, illnesses and diseases have been incurred or aggravated in the line of duty,” Sorenson said on “CUOMO.” “It’s very regular for the Department of Defense, U.S. Army, U.S. Air Force, the National Guard, to deny that medical conditions happen in the law of duty in order to save the government money by denying service members medical care, military status, disability retirement benefits, etc.”
According to a new report, the Department of Defense now acknowledges that Stancik’s diagnosis of postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, or “POTS,” may have been caused by the vaccine.
