Lisa Stonehouse, right, seen in a photo with her daughter Jordan. Lisa Stonehouse died Saturday, 10 days after receiving a dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine. (Wilfred Lowenberg/GoFundme)
Internal investigation at Edmonton hospital underway into death of Lisa Stonehouse, 52
by Wallis Snowdon
May 6, 2021
The first Albertan to die from a rare blood clot condition linked to a COVID-19 vaccine was turned away from an Edmonton hospital two days before her death, a family friend says.
Lisa Stonehouse, 52, died Saturday at the University of Alberta Hospital.
Dr. Deena Hinshaw, Alberta’s chief medical officer of health, said Tuesday that a woman in her 50s died of vaccine-induced immune thrombotic thrombocytopenia (VITT) after receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine.
Hinshaw did not identify the woman, but family members confirm that Stonehouse was Alberta’s first fatal case.
Wilfred Lowenberg, a friend, said Stonehouse was turned away from the emergency department at the Grey Nuns Community Hospital. Two days later, she was admitted to the Strathcona Community Hospital. She was later transferred to the U of A Hospital with a blood clot in her brain.
“The vaccine was supposed to save lives and it ended up taking hers,” Lowenberg told CBC News on Wednesday.
“Even if there is only a one-in-a-million chance for someone to develop a blood clot from AstraZeneca, I personally think that’s too many.”
The family is asking Covenant Health, the Catholic health-care provider that manages the Grey Nuns, to investigate why she was turned away, Lowenberg said.
