Earlier this week, a 14-year-old Singapore Sports School (SSP) student passed away after feeling unwell after a fitness time trial.
As Singaporeans digested the tragic news, speculation emerged that his passing was due to Covid-19 vaccination.
The Ministry of Health (MOH) has said that this is untrue.
Source: Facebook
They also described the speculation as “irresponsible”.
14-year-old Pranav Madhaik, an avid shuttler, passed away on Wednesday (11 Oct).
In a press release on Saturday (14 Oct), SSP revealed that the cause of death was cardiac arrest with “antecedent cause of congenital malformation of coronary vessels”.
Speculation, however, that his passing was linked to Covid-19 vaccination is “untrue and irresponsible”, said MOH in a statement on the same day quoted by Channel NewsAsia (CNA).
The ministry also noted that about 60 strokes and heart attacks happen daily “with or without Covid-19 vaccinations”. Thus, it’s “highly irresponsible to link the two”, they added.
In fact, Pranav received his most recent Covid-19 vaccination more than 18 months ago, MOH said.
They added that it was a dose of the Pfizer vaccine, according to their vaccination records.
The ministry also cautioned against not being vaccinated, saying,
For an unvaccinated person, the risk of Covid-19 infection leading to severe illness, far outweighs that of vaccination.
As for what actually happened to Pranav, SSP said he completed a 400m fitness time trial at 6.26pm on 5 Oct.
After that, he told his coach that he wasn’t feeling well. The coach reportedly told him to rest since he had recovered after resting before.
While the 14-year-old rested, the coach left the track to do other things and then left the school premises.
At 6.40pm, a track and field coach walking by stopped to check on Pranav, and noticed he had trouble getting up even with assistance. He thus called the Boarding staff for help.
Staff then called the ambulance and Pranav’s parents.
The boy was conveyed to the National University Hospital (NUH) but sadly passed away six days later.
His badminton coach has been sacked for not checking on Pranav to ensure his well-being before leaving the track.
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Featured image adapted from Facebook and Google Maps.
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