I’m 32 and prior to the COVID vaccination I was active, healthy and fit. I ate well and worked out at the gym three or four times a week. I swam regularly and played plenty of sport. I had no known health conditions.
I had been working as a draftsman for a Perth metal company for six months. Around October or November, 2021, management sent staff an email about the new vaccination requirement. The carefully worded missive avoided directly stating that refusers would be sacked. However, it was clear that the non-compliant would battle to keep their jobs.
A day or so after this email, a senior manager materialised in the office and quizzed us one by one about our vaccination status. When it was my turn, he asked whether I intended getting the vaccine. I said, “Yeah, sure”, but privately I had serious concerns. I did not want it. I’m cautious about what I put into my body. I avoid the flu shot each year for precisely this reason and yet here I was, being asked to take a hastily developed and quickly rolled-out medical product. I’d also heard disturbing news reports about vaccine side-effects, such as heart problems and blood clots.
I kept quiet about my reservations because my colleagues were very pro-vaccine and would openly mock people who questioned it. They would say things like, “You’d be an idiot not to get the vaccine”. I knew I would be ostracised and ridiculed if I raised my concerns.
Meanwhile, out in society, the propaganda and pressure to get the vaccine was relentless. I worried that I would lose my job and be barred from travelling, or otherwise living a normal life, if I failed to comply.
It all got too much. I went against my gut instincts and had my first and only Pfizer vaccine in my left arm on 10th December 2021 at the Claremont Showgrounds in Perth. The staff assured me there was nothing to worry about. I waited for the 15-minute observation period, then left. I had no reaction other than extreme lethargy for the rest of the day.
Ten days later on 20th of December, I was in the cinema with my wife when I began to feel strangely uncomfortable. It became awkward to move, my left shoulder began to hurt and it was hard to breathe. I turned to my wife and described what was happening. She reassured me, but the symptoms persisted and got progressively worse, especially my breathing issues. It quickly became obvious that I needed help, so we left the cinema and drove straight to the Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital.
When we arrived the staff were helpful and checked me over. They initially thought I had pneumothorax and said it was because a lot of athletes have lung conditions. On further assessment, they decided that I must have exercised too hard at the gym and had injured a lung. A nurse suggested I was struggling to breathe because I was tall and that many tall, athletic people have lung conditions. I told her I had never heard of that before.
By this time my mother had arrived and asked the staff whether the vaccination I’d had a week ago could have anything to do with my symptoms. The atmosphere changed immediately. Staff adamantly rejected any connection and insisted it was impossible the vaccine had landed me here in hospital. Their over-reaction to my mother’s completely reasonable question, struck me as extremely odd. I remember thinking that they were skirting around the real issue. My mother fell quiet and I could see she was overwhelmed by the dismissiveness.
I was then admitted to a ward and had blood tests, an X-ray and a CT scan. My blood tests came back with an elevated D-dimer, which is an indication of blood clotting. The CT scan revealed a blood clot on each lung. As soon as I saw blood clots mentioned, I thought about the adverse events I’d seen reported from the vaccine. I asked to see my X-rays, but was told I would have to apply for them later. It was all too overwhelming at the time, so I did not argue.
I rang work from my hospital bed later that day and spoke to my boss. I told him what had happened and said I suspected it had something to do with the vaccine. He told me to rest up, take it easy and have a good Christmas. I never heard from him again.
The following day, I received an email from the recruitment agency that had got me the job at the metal company. The agency advised that my position would be unavailable in the New Year. I was appalled and deeply hurt that no one from my company contacted me to tell me this themselves. Did they care about me at all? I think not, because no-one to this day, has followed-up to see how I am.
I was started on the blood thinner rivaroxaban on my second day in hospital. This is an anticoagulant medication used to treat blood clots. I was hospitalised for a total of two days while they ran more blood tests. They never got back to me with the results.
Shortly before I was discharged on 21st December 2021, a lung specialist at the hospital told me I might have sarcoidosis and that it was possibly a pre-existing condition. Sarcoidosis is an inflammatory disease where immune-system cells bunch together to form tiny lumps in different body parts. I thought this was ridiculous, as I had never in my entire life, had the slightest indication that I had this rare disease. My sense was that the specialist was attempting to steer the conversation away from the vaccine as a possible culprit. He also said I would have to keep coming in for tests indefinitely.
Hospital staff also made an appointment for me to see both a lung and blood specialist at the hospital. These appointments were weeks away. A few days after I left hospital. I rang to confirm the details of the first appointment, which was with the blood specialist. I rang the specialist’s rooms and asked the receptionist to confirm my appointment, but they didn’t know why I was booked in, or know anything about my case. It turned out I had been referred to the wrong clinic.
During this confusing phone call, the clinic staff ended up putting me through to a nurse. They advised me, over the phone, that I would be fine to get my second vaccination. I was shocked. How could she say this when I already had two clots in my lungs? I told her that I thought it was crazy that a nurse would tell me to get the next vaccine when no specialist doctor had even looked at my CT scan and blood tests. She seemed taken aback at first, but then repeated that I should be fine to get the next vaccination. I said I wanted to speak to a professional before I did that.
In the succeeding months, I had huge trouble sleeping. It was difficult to breathe as I lay in bed and I could not get comfortable. I had to wait three months to see the lung specialist in March, 2022. She was personable but there was no talk about the vaccine as a causative agent of the clots. She said it was possibly sarcoidosis and that I needed a lung biopsy, to rule out cancer. The word ‘cancer’ utterly terrified me and I wondered if my life was over.
I had to wait another three long and nightmarish weeks before my biopsy. I was distraught and it took a huge toll on me and my wife emotionally. I was unable to think about or look for work. My wife was incredibly supportive and told me often that she had my back and not to worry about finding a job, until my health improved. She became the main income earner for the next five months.
After all that stress, the biopsy came back clear. The doctors concluded that I might have sarcoids and that they might have caused the blood clots. In any case, I would need constant follow-ups to check if more blood clots had formed.
Over the next few months I searched for a job, but all the positions in my field required vaccination. I discovered an employment site advertising jobs for the un-vaccinated and found some sporadic labouring and gutter-cleaning work. I also started my own car-detailing business and did some work for a car yard. One day, the manager approached me and said he had noticed my excellent work ethic and offered me a manager’s job on the spot. We now work together to co-manage the car yard and it is the best job I have ever had.
My latest scans, as of July 2022, show scarring on my lungs. I still have dreadful sleeping problems as my breathing issues are unresolved and have not improved. I remain on the blood thinner and it makes me exhausted during the day.
I am optimistic about regaining my health. I swim regularly, go to the gym and stay as fit as possible. I still get breathless when I exercise and have constant fatigue. Nevertheless, I have accepted that the COVID vaccine injured me and it is something I have to live with.
I would like compensation for the five months of lost income. I would also like those who coerced people into being vaccinated to admit they caused me, my wife and other vaccine-injured people untold physical, emotional and mental distress.
By sharing my story, I want anyone harmed by the vaccine, to know they are not alone. I want all the people who championed and foisted these injections on us, to be called out for their complicity, in what will be seen as a terrible time in history. Above all, I want the vaccine-injured to be seen, heard and acknowledged for their suffering.