A BC mother who developed a neurological disorder after taking a Pfizer COVID-19 vaccination says she and many others face tough battles dealing with their injuries and getting medical support and compensation..In an interview with the Western Standard, Kristin Ditzel, of Nelson, BC said her good health and career as an Oriental medicine practitioner ended the day she received a COVID-19 Pfizer vaccination..“I had a lot of patients that were very terrified of COVID. And they felt excited for the vaccine and people felt like it was going to be a solution. I wouldn't say that I felt the same way. I made my decision so my patients would feel safe coming to see me and it was starting to be mandated everywhere. And I needed to work,” Ditzel recalled..“I was vaccinated March 16, 2021. And I developed an anaphylactic reaction onsite, and then over the next 24 hours started with odd neurological symptoms that left me brain damaged. And, yeah, it's been pretty bad.”.An instant reaction followed by a permanent disability might seem like an obvious connection, but Ditzel said it's one neurologists are “afraid” to make. She said her first neurologist stopped being an ally after being contacted by the Vaccine Injury Compensation Board, something she calls “absolutely unethical.” .“I have pages and pages of notes from her where she talks about the fact this is a vaccine injury. She said, ‘We need to deal with all of this.’ She was very, very supportive. She's the one that sent me on further down the chain. And as soon as the government contacted her, she backed out,” Ditzel said..“My family physician had a meeting with her and said, ‘Hey, what's going on? We need to support this patient. We know this is what's happening.’ And she refused.”.Another neurologist rejected Ditzel’s vaccine injury out of hand, but a third one made the connection to receiving the Pfizer vaccine..“My second one … refused to talk about it. She pretty much threw the papers at me and got furious. She was like, ‘Why did you bring these to me?’ She was awful,” Ditzel recalled..“My third neurologist said there was a connection … at the Movement [Disorders] Clinic in Vancouver. He said I have functional neurological disorder. And he backs me.”.Ditzel said it took a year to get on disability support. She calls it “absolute insanity” that at age 45, she must rely on her parents and community to stay in her house. On good days she can still drive, but in many ways her life has “completely changed.”.“I can't work anymore. My life is pretty stuck on my sofa, I can't exercise anymore. I can usually make one meal a day if I'm lucky. I still have lots of tremors and convulsions. I can read and write now, which is great. My speaking is pretty much good, but it comes and goes. Sometimes I miss words and I have stuff like that happening. Lots of migraines.”.Ditzel said she feels “very blessed” to have had a community of generous support, though others have been unkind..“That is one of the most shocking pieces of it, the amount of people that have called me an anti-vaxxer and have said that I'm lying, and all of that pressure,” she lamented..That backlash has also affected Ditzel’s adolescent children..“I have two 18-year-olds and a 14-year-old. They were younger at the time, having all of this trauma and knowing that their mom almost died … unable to lift her head or stop convulsing. And they're in class and teachers are talking about how important the vaccine is and how when people don't get vaccinated, they're just not thinking of other people,” Ditzel recalled..“I'm quite positive. I try to keep myself in a good headspace every day, but it takes a lot of work. And it's difficult watching the expression of my illness on the faces of my children. It's a lot for kids to have to deal with, and with the bullying associated with the vaccines and all of the shaming that came along with having an injury.”.Neither Ditzel nor her son could get a vaccine exemption, despite her experience. Her teenage son finally got the vaccine to maintain access to the rinks where his AAA Midget hockey team played..Diztel trained for five years in classical Oriental medicines, knowledge she said minimized her fears. Putting her understanding to work has proven expensive. She pays $1,600 a month to import medicines she says her family plan would normally cover for $100..“Because they're off label prescription, and because doctors don't want to talk about it and doctors don't want to lose their license, I've had to get these medications from other countries,” she said..“I'm shocked that I wasn't taken care of. I had total faith in this country, so it's just baffling to me that I ended up in this situation. And there's so many of us who have ended up here.”.Jaimie Killen, a close friend of Ditzel’s, said times together are different than before..“We went to CrossFit three to four times a week, we regularly hiked, we regularly went to yoga, we walked the dog, we would take a walk quite often, road trips, dinners out, oh my gosh, everything,” Killen said in an interview..“She can't go to a restaurant anymore because it's too much sound and too much motion. There's too much stimulation for her brain to handle. So, it's hard for her to be out in public at all.”.Killen raised almost $40,000 for Ditzel on a GoFundMe page and started a Facebook group where Canadians who believe they are vaccine-injured can share insights and care..“I'm so angry about the injustice because I've seen it through her injury with the government and with our health care system. And as a Canadian and as a human, it just really upsets me that there is not any support,” Killen said..In a letter sent June 3, 2022, the VISP told Ditzel she would not get compensation..“The Medical Review Board evaluating your case has determined that there is no association between the vaccine/vaccination received and the functional neurological disorder,” the letter read..In response to an inquiry from the Western Standard, project lead and senior case manager Edward Maier, who managed Ditzel’s case, wrote us by email..“Our medical review board must find that the vaccine was the most likely cause of the injuries. The injuries must also meet a threshold of serious and permanent in order to be compensated. Again, I am unable to comment on specific cases due to privacy protections,” Maier explained..Ditzel said she is appealing her refusal. Of more than a thousand Canadians she knows who believe they are vaccine-injured, she only knows two who were compensated by the VISP. Each suffered Guillain-Barré Syndrome, one in B.C. and one in Ontario. This inflammatory disorder of the peripheral nerves outside the brain and spinal cord causes numbness, weakness, and often paralysis..As of March 28, the VISP reviewed 1,276 applications. Of those, 209 were declared inadmissible “due to incomplete information or ineligibility.” The medical review board assessed 221 claims and approved 50 for compensation. Eighteen appeals were made, 13 for causality and five for severity. So far, $2,779,277 of compensation has been awarded..Killen is producing a documentary about Ditzel’s journey called “Invisible Fences.” Killen believes institutional denial is holding back what would be a landslide of vaccine injury claims..“We have seen and had contact with thousands of injured people that are lost in the system, not getting acknowledged, not getting help from doctors, and definitely not applying for this [compensation], because they can't even get a form filled out by a physician,” she said. .“If something shifts, it's going to be a landslide. And then people are going to look at it and go, ‘Whoa, it's not one-in-a-million at all.’”
