A former soldier who says she suffered a debilitating heart condition as a result of the Moderna COVID vaccine has shared explosive documents linking the military’s shots to health conditions.
Army National Guard specialist Karoline Stancik, 24, told former CBS reporter Catherine Herridge that she did not have heart disease before receiving the vaccine under the Defense Department’s 2021 vaccine mandate.
She has since been diagnosed with postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome. according to a memo from the US militarywhich links the vaccine to the syndrome.
About 17,000 soldiers refused the shots and ignored the Biden administration’s mandate, with the support of many conservatives who agreed with their concerns about the pace at which the shots were produced.
The military eventually reversed the rule in January 2023.
She claims she was discharged from active duty in 2022 while suffering from symptoms, costing her her medical benefits and her salary
Army National Guard Specialist Karoline Stancik, 24, said she had a ‘debilitating heart condition’ due to COVID vaccine
In Stancik’s documents, military officials note a link between a COVID infection or a COVID vaccine with the “debilitating heart condition.”
Doctors have disputed that story, and emphasized that the vaccine only made the condition worse among those who had pre-existing conditions.
“The only thing that would have changed was the COVID vaccine, and then everything turned upside down for me,” Stancik told Herridge in a sit-down interview posted on X.
She said after receiving the first vaccine, she experienced coughing, chest pain, sinus pressure and headaches.
But after she got the second dose a month later, Stancik said her symptoms got worse and she started experiencing a rapid heart rate, neuropathic pain and breathing difficulties.
“It felt like [a] burning sensation throughout my body,” she shared, noting that she also felt extreme chest pain.
“It felt like a balloon was forming in my chest.”
While suffering these symptoms, Stancik said she was discharged from active duty in 2022, costing her her medical benefits and her salary.
“I was neglected and the medical care I needed was not forthcoming,” she said.
Stancik claims she then spent three weeks driving around the country to get medical care as she continued to suffer.
Sometimes, she said, the consequences were so debilitating that she even considered suicide.
Stancik said she has had three heart attacks and a mini-stroke and is now getting a pacemaker
“She was thrown away like trash,” USJAG veterans attorney Jeremy Sorenson told Herridge.
She didn’t get her medical benefits back until October 2023, when the U.S. military ruled she was injured in the line of duty, Herridge reports.
In the meantime, she said she racked up more than $70,000 in medical debt.
“I’ve had three heart attacks, a mini-stroke and I’m now getting a pacemaker,” Stancik said.
But Sorenson said Stancik’s case is not unique — and instead represents a larger trend of the Defense Department eliminating benefits for injured soldiers as a cost-saving measure.
“They have the money,” Sorenson said. ‘They choose to spend the money on other things.
‘The Ministry of Defense chooses not to spend its money on its people, not on wounded soldiers; they have different priorities.’
Stancik denied that she is trying to spread anti-vaccine propaganda
He also suggested other service members may have suffered side effects from the COVID vaccine.
“The Department of Defense leadership didn’t want to address that — and still doesn’t want to address that — that we might be hurting our own people with the vaccine mandate,” he said.
Now Stancik and Sorenson say they hope her case will help other service members who have suffered side effects from the COVID vaccine get the benefits they need.
At the same time, Stancik denies that she is spreading anti-vaccine propaganda, noting, “My story, my health, is my own.”
In a statement to Herridge, a U.S. Army spokesman said Stancik could have remained on active duty while receiving treatment.
However, Stancik denied ever receiving advice about that option.
DailyMail.com has reached out to Moderna and the US military for comment.