My Friends are Dying of Heart Attacks

A 50th birthday celebration and reunion is marred by multiple deaths

Loch Eggers at Canoes surf break, Waikiki Beach

John Leake

I’m headed out to Maui to celebrate my brother’s 50th birthday. One of our oldest friends—a 53-year-old named Dan who was my roommate in graduate school—was scheduled to be on my flight, but he isn’t because he died of a heart attack two weeks ago. Both of his parents attended the funeral; both were in exceptionally good physical condition in spite of their advanced age. Dan received the initial two doses of a COVID-19 mRNA vaccine last year, but apparently decided to forgo the boosters.

Another one of our closest friends—a 55-year-old surfing legend named Loch Eggers —was also looking forward to celebrating with us. I spoke to him on the phone last week. He expressed great excitement about our forthcoming reunion and all of the fun we were going to have surfing, barbecuing, and partying.

Loch also won’t make it because he had a fatal heart attack last Saturday. His life and death are chronicled in this beautifully illustrated obituary.

Loch’s case was especially poignant. He was found on the side of a hiking trail that led to a peaceful place where he’d recently erected a shrine to his brother, Hunter, who died of a heart attack a few months ago. Both Loch and Hunter were in exceptionally good physical condition from daily water sports. Loch was one of the greatest amateur surfers on earth.

The Maui County Medical Examiner mentioned to Loch’s devastated girlfriend that he’d autopsied Hunter a few months ago and noted that his heart was conspicuously inflamed. I am waiting to hear the autopsy report in Loch’s case. Both brothers received the mRNA vaccinations plus boosters.

Both of their parents reached life expectancy. Their father died of a heart attack at 82. Their mother was in exceptionally good condition for her advanced age when she died of choking on food.

That both brothers died of heart attacks in their mid fifties raises the suspicion of a genetic basis of sudden death after receiving COVID-19 vaccines. Such a condition was documented in a recent study by Chupong Ittiwut et al. The authors propose that the period of acute danger is within 7 days of vaccination. However, the case of the Eggers brothers warrants an investigation to determine if this particular genetic condition—or some other inherited arrhythmia and cardiomyopathy condition—may be accentuated by the COVID-19 vaccines, with extended periods of danger following vaccination.

Our entire medical establishment, and especially medical examiners, need to get very serious about investigating such sudden deaths.

Do the vaccines initiate a cardiovascular disease process that may not manifest with life threatening symptoms until months or even a year later?

Alternatively, is it possible the vaccines amplify existing cardiovascular disease processes that would eventually result in death, but not (without the vaccine) until much later in life?

Author John Leake’s Note: A reader’s comment prompted me to add the following amendment to my original post.

Today’s medical examiners have the training and equipment to investigate the precise cause of these sudden deaths. Did the decedent have coronary artery disease leading to acute myocardial infarction? Or did the decedent have myocarditis or scarring from previous inflammation that caused a fatal arrhythmia?

Medical Examiners may also refer to Baumeier et al., Intramyocardial Inflammation after COVID-19 Vaccination: An Endomyocardial Biopsy-Proven Case Series, 4.3 Histology, Immunohistochemistry, and Digital Imaging Analysis for detecting SARS-Co-V-2 spike protein in cardiac tissue.