Our third episode features the story of Val, a young Auckland mother who developed myocarditis and other debilitating symptoms shortly after receiving her first Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine dose in late 2021.
Prior to vaccination, Val led an active, sporty lifestyle. She studied sport, played regularly, frequented the gym, and enjoyed an energetic life with her family and two-year-old daughter. As someone working in education, she faced workplace mandates requiring vaccination to maintain employment.
“I waited as long as I could. And it got to December, and I just had no choice. I felt like I had to, if I wanted to keep an income, pay a mortgage, go to places with my child— to have a normal life.”
Despite strong personal reluctance, she describes feeling influenced by social pressure, and the then-common labeling of non-vaccinated individuals as “selfish” and “crazy”. She also received assurances from medical professionals, including her GP, that adverse reactions were rare.
“Before I got vaccinated, I called my GP and asked her what happens if I have a reaction. And she said, ‘We know what to do with it, so you’ll be fine’. So that was also a reason I went and got it, because she kind of gave me that reassurance that if I don’t react well, I’ll get care.”
Sixteen hours after the injection, while doing a routine weekly shop in the supermarket bread aisle, Val experienced sudden, intense tachycardia—her heart racing uncontrollably in a way she had never felt despite her fitness level.
“My heart just started to go boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, like, so fast.”
She sought urgent care, first at Shorecare Urgent Care, a 24-hour urgent care clinic on the North Shore, where staff recognized the severity of her symptoms via ECG and directed her to hospital emergency. However, at the hospital, staff dismissed her symptoms, explaining it’s going to “take 19 hours” to see her, and advised her to go home.
“They said, ‘I need you to sign this form to self discharge and see how you feel in the morning—you’re probably just having a bit of a panic attack.’”
She left feeling abandoned, terrified of going to sleep that night and not waking up.
In the following days and weeks, Val’s symptoms escalated: lumps across her arms and chest, chronic fatigue, blurry vision, severe brain fog, confusion, and limb numbness. Chest pains persisted intensely, described as cramp-like tightening in the chest. Multiple emergency visits yielded similar dismissals—”normal reaction,” “give it a few days.” An initial cardiologist consultation also downplayed her symptoms; one cardiologist discharged her as “fine” and encouraged her to “go for a run”—which led to a rapid deterioration.
With no formal diagnosis, Val relied on her mother’s extensive personal research, community support from the Facebook group “Kiwis with Myocarditis and Pericarditis” (which grew to 10,000 members before removal by the platform for ‘misinformation’), and guidance from New Zealand Doctors Speaking Out with Science (NZDSOS).
She pursued care from one of the two cardiologists known in the vaccine-injured community for accepting such cases.
“There were two main cardiologists that would take us seriously, and that was when I started to get some care. But this was probably eight months down the track now.”
An initial MRI was inconclusive, partly due to her anxiety over the contrast dye injection. A follow-up MRI a year later revealed scarring consistent with prior myocarditis, though they did not document this in her health record.
“It was reassuring to know, okay, I’m not crazy. I did have myocarditis.”
Her experience is an expected reaction, reflected in a nationwide 2023 New Zealand study—the largest vaccine safety assessment ever conducted in the country. Researchers from Health New Zealand examined over 4 million vaccinated individuals aged 5 and older (essentially almost everyone who received a COVID-19 vaccine) and found a clear increased risk of myocarditis and pericarditis (inflammation of the heart muscle or its surrounding sac) linked to the Pfizer vaccine.
They identified the risk of vaccine induced myocarditis or pericarditis was especially high in younger people: for kids and teens aged 5–19, the second dose raised the chance of this heart inflammation by about 25 times compared to normal background rates, leading to roughly 5 extra cases for every 100,000 young people vaccinated with a second shot. In the 20–39 age group, the risk was about 3.5 times higher, after the first dose and 6.6 times higher after the second.*
Val pursued extensive self-managed recovery: rest (avoiding exercise as advised by online sources), supplements, saunas, hyperbaric oxygen therapy and other natural approaches. She spent significant personal funds alongside support from her health insurance that covered vaccine-related claims without question.
Her ordeal extended to social and professional exclusion under the government’s Protection Framework’s vaccine pass rules. She nearly lost her seven-year job—mandates ended just two days before her deadline to be fired—but she still faced barriers accessing everyday services.
“I missed my friend’s wedding, I wasn’t allowed inside a medical centre—I’m just standing outside like an idiot because I didn’t have a pass. I think that was really challenging because—socially, you were this stranded loner; physically, your body is ruined; and mentally, you’re just drained.”
Another smaller New Zealand survey in 2024, of individuals diagnosed with myocarditis and/or pericarditis at least 90 days post-Comirnaty vaccination found that over half of participants reported ongoing impacts on their health, mental health, physical functioning and daily activities.
Family and close friends provided crucial support, particularly her mother’s research which proved lifesaving in countering initial medical dismissals, specifically the advice to not exercise.
“I don’t think I’d be here if it wasn’t for my Mum. She educated me on all of it. I would have just kept running. She taught me a lot, to question more than I ever would have.”
Three years on, Val reports gradual improvement. She recently completed her first run in years, played touch rugby and plans to join a netball team. Occasional chest pains remain but they are now less severe and frequent. As a now-solo parent, fear of recurrence and concern for her daughter’s future remain significant.
“The hardest thing of this whole journey is the fear. Will I wake up? Will this happen again? And what is actually in my body? But I think if I didn’t have that little human that looks up to me, I would probably have given up.”
She expresses ongoing anger at the coercive environment and what she views as widespread naivety during the rollout, while noting many others share similar regrets over feeling forced to vaccinate.
“I’ve come to peace with my choice to get vaccinated. I just need to move forward or I’m just going to stew forever about my decision.”
She is now focusing on forward momentum rather than perpetual resentment, while being determined to keep telling her story.
“Every interaction I’ve ever had with a human, I tell them my story because I think if I don’t tell them my story, how are they going to know this happened? It’s my job to educate.”
She credits community groups and advocates for her survival and recovery support.
THE+TRIBUTE continues to platform these personal accounts from New Zealanders affected by COVID-19 vaccine injuries, highlighting experiences of harm, initial dismissal by parts of the health system and paths to recovery and advocacy.
Watch Episode 3: Val’s Story here
* Muireann Walton, Vadim Pletzer, Thomas Teunissen, Thomas Lumley, Timothy Hanlon, “Adverse Events Following the BNT162b2 mRNA COVID‐19 Vaccine (Pfizer‐BioNTech) in Aotearoa New Zealand”, Drug Safety (2023) 46:867–879
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