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A former U.S. soldier feels “left behind” by the military after a required COVID vaccine left her with a “debilitating heart condition” that cost her career.

A U.S. Army memo seems to confirm that Army National Guard Specialist Karoline Stancik developed the heart condition after she received the vaccine which was being mandated by the Department of Defense in 2021. She told investigative reporter Catherine Herridge that before this time, she had had no heart issues.

The 24-year-old was released from active duty in 2022 as she dealt with her symptoms and was diagnosed with postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, according to the Army memo.

“So is this Army memo an acknowledgment that your heart condition is the result of the COVID vaccine?” Herridge asked Stancik in the interview posted to X.

“It 100 percent is,” she replied, noting that it was a 19-month “grueling process” to get the letter from the Army.

Stancik recounted to Herridge in the interview how she began to experience coughing, chest pain, sinus pressure, and headaches after the first vaccine dose.

“The only thing that would have changed was the COVID vaccine, and that’s when everything flipped upside down for me,” Stancik said.

The second dose of the vaccine landed her with difficulty breathing, an increased heart rate, and neuropathic pain.

“It felt like [a] burning sensation throughout my whole body,” Stancik recalled, adding that she also felt extreme chest pain. “It felt like a balloon was building up in my chest.”

She lost her medical benefits and salary when the military released her from active duty as she suffered the effects of the vaccines.

“I was neglected, and the medical care that I needed to get was not happening,” she said, recounting how she continued to suffer even as she spent weeks traveling to find medical help and relief, with the experience reportedly leading her to even contemplate suicide.

USJAG Veterans Advocate Jeremy Sorenson told Herridge that Stancik was “discarded as trash.”

With a mounting $70,000 in medical debt, the former soldier was finally given back her medical benefits in October 2023 when the U.S. Army determined that her diagnosis was incurred while in the line of duty.

Sorenson contended that the break in benefits for injured members of the military is simply an effort to cut costs for the Department of Defense, at the expense of people’s livelihoods.

“They have the money,” he said. “They choose to spend the money on other things.”

“The Department of Defense chooses to spend its money not on its people, not on injured servicemembers, they have other priorities,” he told Herridge.

“The leadership in the Defense Department did not want to address that – and still does not want to address- that maybe we hurt our own people’ with the vaccine mandate,” he added of the rule that was finally reversed in January 2023.

Stancik, meanwhile, has asserted that “My story, my health, is my own,” and is not spreading any propaganda as vaccine advocates and medical doctors had pushed against the narrative of vaccine-induced injuries.

Stancik updated NewsNation’s Chris Cuomo on getting emergency surgery for a pacemaker after her heart kept stopping.

(Video Credit: NewsNation)

“This happened on their watch,” Cuomo said in recounting Stancik’s story and the DoD’s initial refusal to cover her medical bills.

“This needs wide dissemination and the U.S. Army and DOD must respond to this immediately and honestly,” former National Security Adviser Mike Flynn posted on X.

“Karoline Stancik’s case has always been about a sacred military pledge to leave no one behind,” Herridge said in another video posted on X, encouraging viewers to do their own analysis and look at the documents she posted online related to the story.

Frieda Powers
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