COVID-19 Breakthrough Case Symptoms: Healthy Woman Gets 'Deathly Ill' From Delta Variant

A healthy woman in New Jersey on Thursday revealed she had gotten “deathly ill” from the highly contagious Delta variant despite being fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

Nancy Miller, 62, of Port Monmouth, got her second shot of a COVID-19 vaccine developed by Moderna on March 28. However, the New Jersey resident began feeling sick on July 8 three days after she and her family came home from a family reunion in Sarasota, Florida.

"On July 8, I went to see my rheumatologist for my monthly visit and told him, 'Doctor, I'm just not feeling right,'" Miller told Patch. "The next day, I got deathly ill. I started vomiting, getting pains in my chest; my gastrointestinal system got all messed up. I went to an urgent care clinic and got a COVID test. It came back positive."

Miller was initially sent home by doctors who said she would likely get a mild case of COVID-19 because she has been fully vaccinated. However, her health deteriorated in the next seven days.

The woman said she bruised her rib cage after coughing too hard and began throwing up blood. She was admitted to the Riverview Medical Center where she was later diagnosed with double pneumonia and “astronomical viral COVID levels.”

"The doctors kept telling me, 'Nancy, you will beat this. You are not critical.' I said, 'This is not critical?' Meanwhile, my doctors kept saying they were confident I would survive this and that's all because of the vaccine,” she added.

Doctors released Miller on July 21 after she recovered from COVID-19. However, she still suffers from lingering symptoms, including a loss of taste and smell and pain in her chest.

Her “long COVID” symptoms align with the findings of a study conducted by researchers at the Sheba Medical Center in Israel. According to their paper, which was published in The New England Journal of Medicine on Wednesday, fully vaccinated people who experience breakthrough infections are at risk of suffering from lingering symptoms.

The study observed 39 fully vaccinated Israeli health care workers who tested positive for COVID-19. Of those who were diagnosed, seven suffered from “long COVID,” which includes symptoms such as fatigue, brain fog, and loss of taste and smell.

The researchers noted that their study still needs more research to confirm the results. They conducted their study when the Alpha variant was dominating in Israel.