Moderna – Batches 3002179 on 2021/05/04 and 044D21A 2021/07/27)
My name is Scott. I am 44 years old and a father of two. I live in Ottawa, Ontario. I am a political staffer for a Member of Parliament.
On May 4, 2021 I got my first COVID vaccination through a vaccination clinic my doctor’s office was holding. When I look back, one of the things that is a big topic now is informed consent. I wouldn’t call what I got ‘informed consent’. I was asked a few simple questions and told what to expect post vaccination. I then was asked if they had my permission to proceed.
I went to work the next day with no side effects and feeling pretty good. That was May 5. I have two young kids and in the early morning on May 6, 2021 about 3AM, my daughter came into my room. I picked her up to put her in bed with me and I realized my arm was super sore and I was feeling clammy. I got up and took my temperature. I had a fever of 39 degrees celsius. I took a Tylenol and went back to bed. When I woke up in the morning my kids were bouncing of the walls and I was feeling like crap. My fever was still at 39 degrees and I was super sick and clammy with a headache and a sore arm. I spent the next 3 days with these symptoms. I was told by the doctor that I could expect the fever and headaches, but no one told me that I could possibly have heart issues. I got back to normal, or what I thought was normal after three days.
Fast forward to Jun 27 2021. It was a hot and muggy day and I had just dropped my kids off at their mom’s place and got back home. I planned on jumping on the couch and watching a movie. I went to the kitchen to get a glass of water when I started to feel dizzy and lightheaded. I put my hands on the counter and the next thing I knew I was waking up on the floor of my kitchen. I knew something was seriously wrong because I was on the floor, drenched in sweat and my body was aching. I looked behind me and I saw the door of my stove was smashed and there was other debris on the floor. I got up and went to the couch and called my sister who is a doctor. She didn’t answer on the first call so I called my mom. I figured out, based on my call history, that I had been out for around 10 minutes. I finally spoke to my sister and she told me to call 911 and go to the emergency room.
When I got to the hospital the medics took me to a room and I was hooked up to heart monitors. I had all the normal cardiac tests run that they would run for someone who had had a heart attack. I was told I wasn’t having a heart attack and was referred to an out-patient cardiologist for further follow-up. They could not tell me anything or a reason why this happened to me but said to follow up with the cardiologist.
I had a phone consultation with the cardiologist to discuss the test results and for him to hear what had happened. I was told the plan was to do three additional tests. The first test was a Holter monitor which recorded my heart rhythm and which I had to wear for two days. That happened the first week of July 2021. The second week of July I had an Echocardiogram and finally on July 27 I did a stress test in the cardiologist’s office. To this point I had not received any test results. But at the July 27 appointment I asked them if it was safe for me to get my second vaccination. I had this scheduled for later that day and they told me I was good to go and have it. At 1PM on July 27 I got my second vaccination at a pharmacy near my house.
During the month of July I had asked the cardiologist if I was okay to play baseball as I played in a mixed recreational league. The cardiologist was on holidays but the staff I spoke to checked with him and got back to me saying I was okay to play. I played most of the season and had no real issues. My team had a double-header on September 10, 2021. I was at the game with my kids who were five and three at the time. I played in the first game and played well.
I hit four home runs that game and felt good. After the game I put the kids in the car and went back to speak to my team for a minute. I sat down on the bench and started to not feel well. I had two nurses on my team and was speaking to one of them. I told her I didn’t feel well and she asked a couple of questions. I took three deep breaths and the next thing I remember I was waking up on a stretcher in the back of an ambulance. I had medics jumping all over me and I was being poked with IV needles. Thankfully one of my teammates called the kids’ mom for me and stayed with them as I was being transported to a trauma room at the Ottawa Civic Hospital. When I arrived at the hospital I was put in the trauma room and the on-call cardiologist told me my heart ejection function was at 10%. A normal heart ejection function is 50% to 60%. I was told that the next 24 hours would determine if I lived or died. I told the cardiologist that if I didn’t die on that field, I wasn’t going to die in their hospital. I was left alone in the room and I started to make calls to my family and friends because I wasn’t sure what was going to happen. No one answered, but I didn’t realize how late it was.
I was transferred to the ICU in the Ottawa Heart Institute where I would spend the next seven days. During this time I had a chance to speak to the nurses on my team and I was told that I went blue, my heart stopped for eight minutes and they had to do CPR and use a defibrillator to revive me. When I got to the ICU I realized that I was the youngest person there. I was hooked up to heart monitors and was not able to leave my bed. The team of cardiologists that were looking after me were very open to investigating the cause. They did a cardiac MRI, another Echo and an angiogram. They told me I did not have a heart attack and I did not have coronary disease.
It was becoming clear that as we were ruling out potential causes, the vaccine was now on the table. My parents and my sister were pushing them to consider it. I wanted them to look at everything. When they looked at the cardiac MRI they saw scarring and swelling. I was diagnosed with myocarditis. After seven days in the ICU I was transferred to a ward floor. It was determined that I was going to get an Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator (ICD) in my heart. I was determined to have one because in Ontario you are unable to drive after having a cardiac arrest. Your licence is suspended and to get it back you must have an ICD implanted.
It is worth noting here that a heart attack is a blockage of blood flow to the heart. The blockage is usually caused when a plaque ruptures. In contrast, a cardiac arrest is a condition in which the person’s heartbeat stops abruptly and unexpectedly due to an abnormal heart rate or arrhythmia.
The cardiologists looked at three years of my medical records to determine that my myocarditis was caused by the vaccine. 2019 was the baseline because I had an Echo done which showed normal heart function. The July Echo showed my heart function at 43%, something that should have been picked up by the other cardiologist. My heart function dropped 11% and there was nothing other than the vaccine that I had encountered, that would have caused the drop or the
myocarditis.
I spent 13 days in hospital. The cardiologists wanted me to stay longer but I had already missed my daughter’s fourth birthday and I was tired of the hospital. I was told that only 12 % of people who have an out of hospital cardiac arrest survive, and of that number 70% suffer from some form of mental health challenges. I have suffered an increase in anxiety. I do not go anywhere without my phone just in case something happens again. Emotionally I’ve been up and down, and my patience is shorter for sure. I get frustrated more easily now than I did before.
Physically I now have a scar over my heart where they implanted the ICD; a constant reminder of what happened when I look in the mirror. I have joint pain more than I did before and I have gut issues from the heavy doses of medication I am taking. I also have some memory confusion from time to time.
I don’t know how long I will live. I do know I will live with heart damage for the rest of my life. My licence has been suspended now for eight months. I had a shock from my defibrillator in March so I might not be able to drive for another three to six months. My kids who witnessed the whole thing, have separation anxiety and are always afraid something is going to happen to me.
I am hesitant to talk about this openly because I have been attacked on social media when I have posted about it.
I have had to produce my discharge paperwork that lists my diagnosis and cause to prove to people I wasn’t lying. I have been waiting months to hear back from the vaccine injury support program about whether my application will be approved. I have incurred tens of thousands of dollars of expenses and fees for grocery deliveries and transportation. I have to hire someone to pick up and drop off me and the kids when they are with me. It has been the worst thing in my life that I have had to deal with.
It has also given me perspective though. I am grateful to be alive and still be able to see my kids grow up. But I feel abandoned at times and constantly having to prove what happened to me is taxing.
IG Handle: @gorry associatesinc