SLOBODIAN: A cautionary tale about vaccinating your children

Felicity felt fine when she walked into the Selkirk COVID-19 Supersite for a second vaccine on July 27. 

But she couldn’t walk out. 

And so began a nightmare that continues.

Felicity has since had trouble walking. She’s weak. Initial chest pains increased in severity. She’s undergoing tests for possible heart damage.

“She’s having issues with her heart. We don’t know why yet,” said Patton. “Myocarditis happens right away. Pericarditis after the vaccine can take longer to develop.”

Patton’s speaking out to raise awareness.

“Parents have to know. They’re (health officials) saying the risks outweigh the benefits for this age group. Think hard before taking your healthy child to get vaccinated.

“If I had the information I have now, there’s no way I’d have had her vaccinated,” said Patton, who lives in East St. Paul, a rural municipality adjacent to Winnipeg.

The adverse reaction to that second dose was immediate. 

“She said ‘Oh mom, I need to lie down.’ She did lie down on the floor. She passed out for about 45 seconds. She couldn’t stand up. We kept trying to get her up. She couldn’t support her weight,” said Patton.

Medical staff rushed into the room.

“They kept saying: ‘This isn’t because of the vaccine.’ I said: ‘We literally walked in here an hour ago and she was completely fine.”

The site manager helped Patton get Felicity to the car. 

“It got worse. She’d basically go to bed or crawl to the couch. Only being able to crawl lasted two weeks. Then she started to walk with a cane.”

Five days after the jab Felicity was finally able to eat.

“Then she took a turn for the worse. She was super-nauseous, had a fever. We were on the phone with HealthLinks. We were pretty much talking to them every day. They told us to call an ambulance.”

A neurologist at Winnipeg Children’s Hospital assessed Felicity.

“The neurologist wasn’t really concerned, believing it would go away. She wasn’t paralyzed. She just didn’t have any strength in her legs. It was the same old follow-up with your doctor kind of thing.”

There have been so many trips to doctors it’s a blur. 

“At some point you realize they really can’t help us. Everyone’s so afraid to say it’s the vaccine which makes it harder because people don’t even want to talk to you.”

Searching for answers, Patton had Felicity tested for COVID-19. It was negative.

When she was inactive, the chest pains that started after the injection were rare. The more she was able to move, the worse they got.

She received a heart event monitor November 22.

“Two weeks ago, she had a four-hour bout of severe chest pains. It knocked her flat. She couldn’t breathe.

“Last week she was at the hospital Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. The EKGs (electrocardiograms)were fine. The chest X-ray was fine. The blood work was fine.”

On Wednesday she got another heart event monitor.

“They said she should keep it for six weeks or 10 incidents. She had 10 incidents the first day.”

Felicity takes Advil and Tylenol four times daily to dull the pain.

Patton believes the cool reaction from some health workers may be influenced by the fact that Felicity is autistic, has ADHA, and suffers bouts of anxiety.

“They’re so quick to dismiss people with mental health challenges. I’ve been dealing with her panic attacks for 13 years. This is not that. She has high-functioning autism.”

Felicity’s service dog Dakota grounds her when she gets overwhelmed. A psychiatrist helps work through the anxiety.

“COVID-19 has been hard because she lost her normal routines. She’s doing better now with the help of the psychiatrist. They were meeting every three or four weeks. Now it’s every three months.”

In August, the psychiatrist wrote a letter to Felicity’s pediatrician saying autism wasn’t the cause of her health problems.

The doctor reported it as an adverse vaccine reaction.

“We were probably six visits between the hospital and him before he said it had to be reported. Health people I’ve talked to said it’s a miracle it was reported.”

Winnipeg Regional Health Authority (WRHA) called soon after.

“They wanted to know if they could follow up with her after she had a booster. My husband swore. What makes them think we would ever take her for a booster?”

Felicity was able to start Grade 10 at Exchange MET School on time, walking with a cane.

“She never had health problems. Now we must figure out what’s going on with her heart. It’s getting worse.”

Patton gets frustrated when she sees ads promoting COVID-19 vaccines for children.

“They’re not telling parents everything. When you see them (health officials) on the news, it seems you can see on their faces that they know more than what they’re saying. It’s like they sold their souls.”

Manitoba Health’s website states: “After being immunized your child may have little to no reaction… Serious reactions rarely occur.”

“One hospital nurse told us ‘You’d be hard-pressed to find somebody here who’d get their kids vaccinated.” 

One health worker confirmed to Western Standard that HealthLinks receives calls from parents with children having “brutal” vaccine reactions.

“COVID-19 isn’t really affecting kids. I don’t know why we’re vaccinating kids. I get that there might be immunocompromised kids. Then absolutely. But don’t just blanket approve it.’

Patton has no doubt about why her daughter is sick.

“I’m 100% convinced it’s because of the vaccine.”

“Felicity says ‘I’m going to be fine, right?’ We say ‘Yup.’ But we don’t know.”

Slobodian is the Senior Manitoba Columnist for the Western Standard

lslobodian@westernstandardonline.com