Metro
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O’Brian Pastrana was forced to take early retirement from the FDNY after suffering permanent heart damage related to the mandatory coronavirus vaccine. He is currently fighting in court to receive disability benefits due to the accident.
michael falco
An FDNY firefighter says he was forced to retire on half his pay because he suffered permanent heart damage from taking the city-mandated coronavirus vaccine.
According to court documents, O’Brian Pastrana is now asking a judge to award him a more favorable disability pension in which three-quarters of his final salary will be paid tax-free.
Pastrana, 37, received the jab in October 2021 at the city’s request, but suffered an immediate allergic reaction, including swollen lips, chills and body aches.
Despite going to the emergency room three times, he claims he was forced to get a second dose of the Pfizer vaccine a month later.
“After the second shot, I thought I was going to die,” Pastrana told the Post, adding that she was rushed to the ER again after the second shot.
By February 2022, the married father of two had been diagnosed with myocarditis, a deadly inflammation of the heart muscle, and was on the verge of heart failure, according to court records.
According to , heart disease is a rare side effect of vaccines. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Pastrana was then told he could never become a firefighter again and was forced to retire in March after more than 10 years on the job.
“I was completely blindsided,” he said in a statement in court. “To say I was devastated would be an understatement.”
Shock turned to anger, he claimed, when Pastrana was given a $92,000 salary and a meager out-of-work pension, less than half of his overtime pay.
This made him feel alienated from the “so-called brotherhood.”
“You realize that you are just a number or a name on a piece of paper,” he added.
Pastrana is asking the judge to award him disability benefits due to the accident.
“I just want to support my family,” Pastrana, who worked at Engine 67 in Washington Heights, wrote in a petition in Manhattan Supreme Court, naming the city, the city’s firefighter pension fund and the fund’s board of directors. ” he wrote.
Luis Sforza, a consultant for the Uniformed Firefighters Association, told the pension board that “nearly every physician on record has indicated that they will retire due to COVID-19 effects from vaccination,” according to legal filings. “I was doing it,” he said.
Mayor de Blasio mandated that all city employees be vaccinated against the coronavirus in October 2021, sparking widespread protests and lawsuits.
“Firefighter Pastrana’s case clearly exposes the city’s systemic failure to provide adequate support to firefighters injured by the city’s vaccination mandate,” his attorney Cristina Martinez said in a statement. Stated.
Pastrana continues to battle health issues and works as a school bus driver to make ends meet.
He said he has become a “husk” of his former self, unable to play catch with his 12-year-old daughter or help his wife around the house. He has been diagnosed with PTSD, depression, and anxiety.
“Now I have to catch my breath just to finish a sentence. During that time, I was a New York City firefighter,” he said.
The FDNY referred a request for comment to the City Attorney’s Office, which said it was reviewing the case.
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