Shameful Medical Silence - Two Canadians Paralysed By Swine Flu Vaccine

[Guest guest]

Forwarding........................

 

Shameful Medical Silence - Two Canadians Paralysed By Swine Flu Vaccine

 

TORONTO SUN

torontosun.com

 

30th January 2010

One small needle, a world of trouble

By MICHELE MANDEL

 

 

Donna Hartlen, a young mother who is now

partially paralyzed, has been diagnosed with

Guillain-Barre syndrome. Hartlen, seen in her

hospital room with her husband Wayne Burke,

blames the H1N1 flu shot. (STAN BEHAL, Toronto Sun)

 

 

Downstairs in the rehab wing of Markham Stouffville hospital, in a private

room with a sunny window, lies Donna Hartlen, a young mother who is now

partially paralyzed.

 

 

The Whitby woman can’t stand without leaning on a walker and her legs are

too numb to allow her to walk for more than a few steps. The right side of

her face is paralyzed, she can’t properly chew solid food and her right eye

is bandaged because she can no longer blink to protect it.

 

 

Until five weeks ago, she was a perfectly healthy woman spending Christmas

with her family in Nova Scotia. And then on Dec. 29 she was rushed to an

emergency room in Halifax, suddenly unable to stand on feet.

 

 

The doctors diagnosed her with Guillain-Barre syndrome, a rare

neurological condition characterized by sudden weakness or paralysis. And while

no one

seems willing to discuss the likely cause, the 39-year-old knows exactly

where the fault lies.

 

 

She blames the H1N1 flu shot she received on Dec. 13 - two weeks before

her symptoms suddenly appeared.

 

 

Of course, there is no way to know for certain. But Hartlen has only grown

more convinced since chatting by chance in the hall with the older

gentleman from the hospital room next door.

 

 

Don Gibson has GBS as well, with legs so numb now that he is confined to a

wheelchair. It turns out that not only was he also vaccinated against

H1N1, but he got the shot just two days before Hartlen, in the very same

Markham doctors’ office.

 

 

“It’s way too coincidental,†insists the slight mom, her words slurred

because the right side of her face will not move. “It’s either a bad batch

or a lot more people are getting this than they are talking about.â€

 

 

Her 80-year-old neighbour is equally convinced that the H1N1 vaccine to

blame. “It must have been a bad batch,†Gibson believes. “But nobody is

saying anything. I know I signed a piece of paper and there’s no liability

but

it’s pretty scary.â€

 

 

They are now comrades in arms, an unlikely duo who share a rare illness

and a similar vaccination history that no one wants to acknowledge.

 

 

According to the Public Health Agency, there are about 600-700 new GBS

cases a year in Canada, caused usually by food-borne bacteria, respiratory

infections or surgery.

 

 

“The risk of getting GBS after any flu vaccine is about one case for every

million doses distributed,†the website says. “The benefit of the vaccine

outweighs this theoretical risk.â€

 

 

So far, the agency says they haven’t had any unusual spike in GBS - there’

s been 22 cases following the H1N1 vaccination - or .87 per million doses

distributed. But Hartlen questions how many GBS patients are actually being

reported; she says she was the one who finally called her local public

health department because no medical professional seemed interested in the

possible connection.

 

 

“Not a single doctor we’ve talked with will even remotely discuss that

it’

s the H1N1 shot,†marvels Hartlen. “They almost pretend they don’t hear

you. They don’t want to alarm the public and they don’t want you to stir up

trouble.â€

 

 

So GBS patients like Hartlen and Gibson are on their own.

 

 

Right now, Quebec is the only province with a no-fault vaccine injury

compensation program in place.

 

 

“It’s a horror story of how little Ontario will do to help patients that

come down with this after the government promotes it so much,†complains

her husband, Wayne Burke.

 

 

They have two little girls at home, just 4 and 2. He works full-time at

Telus; she was a self-employed business systems analyst. With no family in

Whitby, they flew in her parents from Nova Scotia, but the elderly couple

can’

t look after the kids indefinitely.

 

 

Meanwhile, Hartlen has been told it can take months - and up to a year -

before she completely regains all movement. So how is the

partially-paralyzed mom supposed to take care of two young children until then?

 

 

“If my kids were 10 and 12 it would be different. But a four and

two-year-old need 100% attention and I can’t give it to them,†she worries.

 

 

So she’s hardly unreasonable in expecting some kind of government support.

But after countless phone conversations with every level of bureaucrat, she

’s learned there will be no such thing.

 

 

“They’re the ones who push this vaccine. They promote it every five

minutes on TV. So I do what they say and I get GBS and they’re not going to

help

me?

 

 

“I need help for my kids - I’m not looking for anything extravagant. I’m

not an ambulance chaser. I don’t want to sue anybody. I just want to get my

kids looked after while their father is at work.â€

 

 

Instead, there is only a shameful silence.

 

 

Read Mandel every Sunday, Thursday and Friday.

_michele.mandel_ (michele.mandel) or

416-947-2231.

 

*************

Related Links:

 

* _GlaxoSmithKline - No Explanation For Canada Killer H1N1 Vaccine_

(http://www.theoneclickgroup.co.uk/news.php?start=3080 & end=3100 & view=yes & id=4076\

#ne

wspost)

Helen Branswell, Medical Reporter, Canadian Press

*************