A 19-year-old philology student died post-vaccination after he defied his family’s philosophical and religious objections to the Covid-19 vaccine.

Volodymyr Salo, also spelled “Vladimir” in some accounts, received his first dose of the Pfizer vaccine on September 13th at around 2:30pm local time, according to the Ukrainian Humanities Institute. Salo was a student there where he studied philology. Following the vaccine, he went about his day as normal: He ate dinner in the student cafeteria at 6:30pm and later played board games with his fellow students in the commons area. However, his health quickly deteriorated from there.

At around 8pm, Salo began suffering from a high fever and general malaise, where he then collapsed and had a seizure at 8:15pm, suffering from violent convulsions. Whilst they waited for the ambulance to arrive, university medical staff performed CPR. When paramedics arrived at 8:45pm, they applied a portable ventilator for an hour in an attempt to save Salo’s life, but he, unfortunately, had no pulse by 9pm.

Salo was pronounced dead shortly after.

Salo was raised in a Christian household and was a member of a Seventh-Day Adventists church. This Protestant denomination recognises Saturday as the Sabbath instead of Sunday. Salo’s entire family was strongly against mRNA and viral vector DNA injections.

His brother-in-law told Ukrainian online publication Obozrevatel: “He did not tell anyone from his family about the decision to be vaccinated. Perhaps he knew that everyone would be against [it] and would discourage such a decision. And he was so risky by nature, he could make spontaneous decisions.

“He could be very limited in his desires. They say that those who were not vaccinated will not be able to travel freely, go to cafes, etc. We think that this is what prompted him.”

Salo’s death certificate states that he died from a cardiopulmonary insufficiency, pulmonary edema, and acute coronary insufficiency. To explain, it essentially means that his heart and lungs were completely destroyed, likely due to blood clots. An official cause of death will not be determined for months.

Salo was a third-year philology student at the Ukrainian Humanities Institute. Philology is similar but different from etymology. He was a regular blood donor and tutored younger students online who were learning English.

Salo is survived by his mother and four siblings.