Thank you Sen. Ron Johnson (R).
Candace Hayden - victim of Moderna Good morning. My name is Candace Hayden and I'm from Michigan.
I received the Moderna vaccine on March 2nd,
and the second dose on March 30th.
On April 18th I had a typical day, swimming, running,
and gardening, I was beginning the training for my next triathlon.
At 7pm I turned to my left and felt an odd pain under my shoulder blade.
I took a step and my right leg buckled, slightly,
but I didn't think anything of it, I continued with my day.
And then, around midnight, I went to stand
and both my legs buckled. I was suffering from severe paresthesia,
and was paralyzed, partially paralyzed from my chest down.
During the 26 days hospital stay I had six magnetic resonance imagings (MRI),
two computed tomographies (CT), a transesophageal echocardiogram (TEE),
a spinal tap and several blood tests.
They ruled out multiple sclerosis (MS), transverse myelitis,
spinal cord stroke, and auto immune disease.
Medically there was absolutely nothing wrong with my body.
After seven days the medical team prescribed an aggressive dose of steroids that resulted in no change.
I started inpatient therapy after 17 days,
and I was released from the hospital on May 14th with no concrete diagnosis.
The head of my medical team told me that I should get used to be an handicapped.
I started and I'm still in outpatient therapy,
and on May 21st I visited my primary care doctor as I was instructed,
who told me that she couldn't offer me anything, but if I needed her to give her a call.
My medical team at the hospital refused to associate my condition with the vaccine,
and I continually asked them to report to VAERS, but I don't think that they did.
It defies my imagination that we can find each other.
But the medical community refuses to draw the lines,
and recognize that people are suffering similar adverse side effects.
Case in point, I was able to locate another patient in the hospital
that I was in, with similar symptoms, brought it to the attention of my medical team
and they refused to even speak to that patient's doctor.
I don't have a spouse, nor do I have young children.
In one respect, I'm truly blessed from my family not having to have to suffer,
but it leaves me isolated and lonely, as my interaction with others is limited.
This is far worse than COVID lockdown.
Before this I was healthy, I was active and self sufficient.
I fear my diminished quality of life is my new normal.
Will I ever run again? Will I ever ride my bike? I would give anything to get in my car and just drive it.
My greatest fear is for others like Maddie, the children,
those that are younger, that don't have a voice.
They can't tell you how they're feeling, that don't understand why their legs are no longer working.
I am pro vaccine, I am pro science,
and I understand the vaccine is for the greater good.
However, I also understand that we represent a small portion experiencing negative side effects.
We trusted science, and we did our part.
As a result, we are now synonymous to wounded soldiers, who should not be left behind.
We are asking to be seen, we are asking to be heard,
and we are asking to be believed. Thank you.
Kristi Dobbs - victim of Pfeizer Hi, I'm Kristi Dobbs. I do really appreciate you all being here today. It means a lot to us,
and Sen. Johnson thank you so much for your willingness to have us here, so that my voice can be heard,
but not just mine, but thousands behind me.
As I said, my name is Kristi Dobbs, I'm from Missouri,
I am a wife and a mother of four children,
and I have practiced as a dental hygienist for the last 17 years.
And since being in such a career, I have always been pro science and pro vaccination.
Before my vaccination, I was a healthy and active 39 year old,
I enjoyed activities outside, traveling, and crafting with my family.
I also cherished my work in a very busy pediatric dental office.
I was not taking any medications prior to the vaccine,
and I have never had a COVID infection, and I have been tested for proof.
In January, my life changed drastically.
Immediately after the injection, I felt an odd tingling-type dripping sensation in my arm.
I had immediate heart palpitations, and a feeling as if I was going to pass out.
And my blood pressure reading was so high
that I don't know how I didn't have a stroke. I cannot quote what it was, but
as a hygienist I take blood pressure readings on my patients
before I treat them, my adult patients, and it was so high
that I was scared in that moment that something was happening to me. I did eventually stabilize.
They monitored me for the 15 minutes and then an extra 30 minutes after,
and I did stabilize so they went on ahead, and sent me home.
When I got home I felt a little woozy, a little dizzy.
The next couple of days I just had a headache, and just kind of that feeling of unwell.
All of the things that I had signed up for to get the vaccine,
but it was three days later that my symptoms increased and accelerated.
I had a sharp stabbing pain in my scapula area
that was just this intermittent, like a knife-stabbing pain.
I had tingling and numbness throughout my body. It ran down both my arms.
I also still had the heart palpitations. I had these internal vibrations,
and the only way I can explain the internal vibrations
is it feels like you have this little electric shock running through your body,
like you're stuck in a vibrating chair, like glued into it and it never stops.
Which has made me leery if I'll ever be able to practice as a hygienist again.
And like Sheryl, I am so fearful
that I may have some sort of neurological issue after this with Parkinson's.
They have ruled out multiple sclerosis (MS), but again they have not told me that I have anything.
They can tell me what I don't have.
I have swollen lymph nodes, brain fog,
I had brain fog so extreme that I would be having a conversation with someone, and I would black out,
try to come back to that conversation and nothing was there.
Swollen lymph nodes, muscle weakness, unexplained skin rashes.
I had convulsions and nighttime seizures.
I had to have my six-year-old daughter wake me up from a fit in the middle of the night.
No six-year-old should have to do that for their parent.
I have also experienced thick clotting, heavy menstrual cycles.
I was so afraid that I literally, and I have it with me,
I prepared my will and my obituary for my family because I didn't think that I would wake up to the next day.
I have reported my symptoms to V-safe, VAERS, CDC, FDA, Pfeizer.
I have also sent information to two very well known research institutes,
and I have also reached out to prestigious universities.
I've been dealing with this for five months.
These past five months my severe neurological reactions continue to plague me,
every day feels like I'm trapped in the movie Groundhog Day.
I go to sleep praying, thinking I'm gonna wake up the next morning and be better, and I'm not.
I've had multiple tests, more than any person to have to go through this time in their life.
I have had X rays, blood work, magnetic resonance imagings (MRI),
computed tomography scans (CT), ultrasounds, electroencephalograms (EEG), and more.
To date, the medical community has still remained baffled, and unable to restore my health.
I'm scared and frightened for my future.
So I do have hope, and this is why I'm here today, speaking out.
This is not an easy thing to do guys, but I hope that our conditions will be researched and studied,
I hope that we can find a solution in a pathway to health, that's all we want.
I would give anything, I would give my whole life savings if I could go back to January 17th,
and never to have had to experience this in my life,
and that those that are suffering,
and that those that will come behind us, because the vaccine is still rolling out,
that they will benefit from us coming forward, and speaking today.
We have suffered long enough.
I think that we do deserve this time that you've given us today,
and we are so gracious that you've taken your time to be here today.
But we do deserve to be seen, what you are seeing us today,
and heard, you're listening.
But we need to be believed, that is the biggest issue.
We just want you guys to believe that this is real. We are real Americans,
we are real people experiencing these side effects,
so I thank you for doing just that today.
Maddie de Garay - victim of Pfeizer So first, thank you Sen. Johnson for the opportunity to share Maddie's story,
and to all of you for your willingness to listen.
This isn't easy for me, and this has been very clearly emotional,
so I'm going to read what I've written so I don't lose track.
My name is Stephanie and this is my daughter Maddie and we live in Ohio.
On January 20th, Maddie received her second dose of the Pfizer COVID vaccine
as a participant in the clinical trial for 12 to 15 year olds.
All three of our kids volunteered and we're excited to participate in the trial
as a way to help us all return to normal life.
My husband works in the medical field, and I have a degree in electrical engineering.
We are pro-vaccine and pro-science,
which is why we agreed to let Maddie and her two older brothers volunteer for the trial.
Before Maddie got her final dose of the vaccine, she was a healthy 12-year-old
who got straight A's and had lots of friends. She had a life.
She was energetic. She was not like this, although she does still have lots of friends.
Upon receiving the second shot, Maddie immediately felt pain at the injection site,
and over the next 24-hours she developed severe abdominal and chest pain,
and the way she described the chest pain, and I quote,
"It feels like my heart is being ripped out through my neck".
She had painful electrical shocks
down her neck and spine that forced her to walk hunched over.
She had extreme pain in her fingers and toes,
it actually made them turn white, and they were cold whenever you touched them.
She had edema, so my husband immediately took her to the emergency room (ER)
as instructed by the vaccine trial nurse administrator, which is what we were instructed to do.
Her blood was taken for a renal profile and tested. She was checked for appendicitis, which she did not have,
and given an intravenous (IV) with some medicine, then sent home.
However, in the discharge papers from the children's hospital emergency room (ER) that she went to, the diagnosis stated
"Adverse effect of vaccine initial encounter".
This would be the only time that that was written in her medical charts, but it's in there.
Over the next two and a half months her abdominal muscle and nerve pain became unbearable.
She developed additional symptoms that included gastroparesis,
nausea and vomiting, erratic blood pressure, and heart rate,
memory loss, she mixes up words, brain fog,
headaches, dizziness, fainting - she fell and hit her head - and then seizures.
She developed verbal and motor tics.
She had loss of feeling from the waist down and muscle weakness,
drastic changes in her vision, urinary retention,
and loss of bladder control, severely irregular and heavy menstrual cycles,
and eventually she had to have a nasogastric (NG) tube put in to get nutrition.
All of these symptoms are still here today, some days are worse than others.
Our greatest challenge came when her doctors began to consider an alternative diagnosis,
well she really didn't have one before, so it was the first one.
So, like everybody else she had lots of tests, but not nearly as many tests as everybody else, and she's a child.
Why didn't they do all those tests on her?
So, because they couldn't figure it out
one physician labeled her as having "Functional neurologic disorder",
saying it was due to anxiety.
This concerned us, and we didn't agree with it because she doesn't have anxiety. Look at her.
I mean what 13-year-old can sit here calmly if they have anxiety or mental issues?
At one point they even tried to admit her to a mental hospital.
So we did seek additional medical opinions, some of which came from this group.
In June, we connected her neurologist with another doctor that's doing research on adverse reactions like Maddie's.
She was finally provided, but they finally gave her an magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of her brain,
a magnetic resonance venography (MRV), and a bunch of additional blood tests.
It took five months to get that done.
Over the past five months Maddie has been into the emergency room (ER) nine times,
and has been hospitalized three times for a total of two months in the hospital.
What I want to ask, Maddie volunteered for the Pfizer trial,
why aren't they researching her to figure out why this happened,
so other people don't have to go through this?
Instead they're just saying it's mental. If anybody's mental, it's me.
So, today our journey as parents to help our daughter Maddie continues.
All we want is for Maddie to be seen, heard, and believed, because she has not been,
and we want her to get the care she desperately needs,
so that she can go back to normal. Why is she not back to normal?
She was totally fine before this. She did the right thing trying to help everybody else,
and they're not helping her. Thanks.
Brianne Dressen - victim of Astrazeneca I just wanted to say thank you all for being here to hear these stories.
And as you can see, now I can see your faces.
We are like a family, we have suffered together for so long
in a way that no one understands but us.
So we really do appreciate you taking your time to give us a voice,
to give us this opportunity to plead our case.
A huge thank you to Sen. Johnson, he's been very kind and very generous with his time.
I also want to say thanks to Sen. Lee, my home senator, and his staff for their compassion,
and for taking our concerns seriously.
And they're actively working with us to help us find a solution.
My name is Brianne Dressen, I am a preschool teacher in Utah, and I am a mother of two small kids.
Like everyone else here I'm a strong supporter of science, and I have always believed in the importance of vaccines.
I was so confident in this that I enrolled in the phase three clinical trial here in the United States for Astrazeneca.
Within minutes of my first shot, I felt tingling down my arm,
and by that evening my vision had become blurry, and sound became distorted,
and I developed hyperacusis, which is a sensitivity to sound.
Within 48 hours I landed into the emergency room (ER), the first of many visits.
My sensitivity to light and sound became so severe that I had to be confined to my bedroom,
alone in darkness and silence.
Even brushing my teeth was painful.
I then began experiencing erratic heart rate and body temperature,
extreme nausea to the point that I lost over 20 lbs just before Thanksgiving,
I lost control of my legs and my bladder, along my dignity.
At the hospital I was treated for a severe migraine,
and when that didn't resolve anything they told me it was anxiety.
Next came the vibrations, and they were internal vibrations, in my brain and all through my body.
I couldn't think, I couldn't eat, I could barely breathe.
This persisted 24/7 for months, I was trapped in isolation and in silence,
completely overwhelmed by the sensations attacking my body.
My Children went days without seeing me, I missed out on months of their lives,
I did not buy a single Christmas present for my kids.
I thought I was dying, and after months I wanted to die.
After months of suffering alone, I found Dr. Hertz and her group.
I was initially relieved to hear others like me.
However, my relief turned to alarm as our numbers grew, and then it started impacting kids.
All of our experiences were similar,
healthy people who became ill after receiving the vaccine,
whose doctors instead insisted that these reactions were not really happening, that the CDC would have told them.
They blamed multiple sclerosis (MS), they blamed anxiety,
they blamed migraines, anything but the vaccines.
A new friend of mine had long haulers,
then she received the vaccine in hopes that her symptoms would improve.
However, rather than bringing relief,
the vaccine took what little progress she had made, leaving her severely debilitated.
We talked often, many days just trying to hold on.
Then, I hadn't heard from her for a few days,
and I get a phone call from her husband,
and she had become a victim of suicide.
The human toll is real, this is not some benign reaction.
This thing overtakes your body, and you have no choice but to hold on,
and hope that you survive.
We have been robbed of our cognitive abilities, our physical abilities,
we cannot work, we cannot care for our families or our children, or ourselves.
We are struggling to make it through each day,
abandoned by our health care teams.
We are the collateral damage of the pandemic.
As you can see, I am recovering, I can walk,
the touch of my little son's hand no longer feels like it's setting me on fire,
the sweet sound of my daughter's voice no longer feels like it's attacking my brain,
but I have a long way to go.
I still am unable to work or care for my children,
we had to refinance our home to hire a nanny.
Before this I took one medication, a thyroid pill every day, and now I am on nine,
and that's just to turn down the dial, just enough to make the symptoms bearable.
We all volunteered to receive the vaccine to try to help to end the pandemic, but now we are suffering.
COVID has impacted all of us, for some it has resulted in the loss of life,
for others they are now long haulers debilitated and suffering.
There are long haulers who have got the vaccine and their condition improved,
there are long haulers who got the vaccine and they stayed the same,
and there are long haulers that got the vaccine and now they are worse.
And there are some who never had COVID, and are now severely debilitated and sick.
This is us, we are part of the full picture,
please do not erase us, please do not make us invisible.
To the media, we need your help to start the conversation,
to help us end the stigma surrounding the term COVID vaccine reaction.
To the CDC and FDA, we desperately need you to communicate with the medical community what is happening.
To our elected officials, we need help getting momentum for research for early intervention strategies,
so that when these patients do arrive in the emergency rooms (ER) and hospitals,
physicians will be equipped with the knowledge and tools to help us.
To the medical community and to research institutions, please help us,
please hear us, please believe us. Thank you.