Up until last week, 12 year old Independence Villager, Sabrina Almendarez had been known as an active healthy child. But her family says that after she took a tetanus shot last week Monday, she became ill with fever and headache. On Friday at 4:30 am, her father, teacher Gregory Almendarez found her motionless in her bed. The family rushed her the 50 miles to the Southern Regional Hospital about but when they got there she was pronounced dead. It's a nightmare no one would want to live through, and tonight the family is pointing to the tetanus shot as the only thing that could have triggered the girl's sudden demise. The ministry of health has whose polyclinic administered the injection says that it cannot comment until a post mortem examination is completed. That is scheduled for tomorrow.
But 7News has learned that Sabrina received a DT shot, that D-T stands for Diphtheria and Tetanus combination. The vial she received it from was also shared with nine other children - who are not reporting any symptoms, according to our reports.
According to 2012 figures, 21,210 persons including children less than five receive vaccines for tetanus yearly.
7,250 persons between the ages of 4 and 40+. received DT vaccines last year, and the majority, over three thousand, received it between the ages of 10 and 15.
We'll follow up on the post mortem tomorrow.
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