Shameful Medical Silence - Two Canadians Paralysed By Swine Flu Vaccine

[Guest guest]

I believe their stories,.... my step-father is in the hospital right now and I

feel that it is related to his taking the vaccine. He became sick with the flu

shortly after receiving the vaccine. Then about 5 days after he thought he was

going to be well he came down with pneumonia and started having problems with

his heart. He had to be admitted and has gone through two procedures to have his

heart shocked back into rhythm. Now he is being diagnosed with renal failure,

congestive heart failure as well as the pneumonia.

Michigan

 

--- On Sat, 2/6/10, bestsurprise2002 <bestsurprise2002

wrote:

 

bestsurprise2002 <bestsurprise2002

<< >> Shameful Medical Silence - Two

Canadians Paralysed By Swine Flu Vaccine

MCS-Canada

Saturday, February 6, 2010, 2:23 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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@ sunmedia. ca_ (michele.mandel@ sunmedia. ca) or

 

416-947-2231.

 

 

 

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

 

Related Links:

 

 

 

* _GlaxoSmithKline - No Explanation For Canada Killer H1N1 Vaccine_

 

(http://www.theonecl ickgroup. co.uk/news. php?start= 3080 & end= 3100 & view=

yes & id=4076# ne

 

wspost)

 

Helen Branswell, Medical Reporter, Canadian Press

 

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