colinnew
A previously “fit and active” mum of two has been left wheelchair-bound and “progressively losing function” in her limbs after a suspected reaction to the Pfizer vaccine.
Melene Guevremont, 37, was into surfing, snowboarding, paddle boarding and rock climbing but her health began to deteriorate after receiving her third Covid vaccine dose in March 2022, according to her fiance.
Richard Ellison has launched a GoFundMe for Ms Guevremont, who “desperately needs medical treatments” after doctors were left “at a loss on how to help her as these vaccines are too new”.
Ms Guevremont is experiencing more than 30 symptoms mimicking those of motor neurone disease (MND), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS) but despite already spending “many thousands of dollars on doctors/specialists … they have been unable to help so far”, according to Mr Ellison.
The mum of two was ‘previously fit and active’. Picture: Daily Mail
“We desperately need to try therapies in order to repair and stop the deterioration of her body,” he wrote.
“We plan to fly her over to the United States (from Australia) to receive promising treatments that consist of specialised nutritional IVs with peptides (which are illegal in Australia), stem cells injections and blood filtration treatments. These treatments have been proven to help many vaccine injured people, so we’re hoping this can help Mel.”
He added that if she was too unwell to fly to the US, “we will try similar treatments in Australia and possibly other countries if something more suitable is found”.
“Mel’s condition is evolving constantly,” he said.
“These treatments cost many tens of thousands of dollars and will probably need to be repeated multiple times if they work. We are desperate for her to regain her health as currently, we fear the worst.”
Ms Guevremont told The Daily Mail, “It’s ruined my life completely and utterly. I am skin and bones. I don’t recognise myself. It’s not my body and I wake up with a new symptom every day. It’s a grieving process.”
The 37-year-old has been left wheelchair-bound. Picture: Daily Mail
The couple, who moved to Australia from Canada seven years ago, were forced to sell their Manly unit as she struggles with stairs, and have spent more than $25,000 seeing specialists including neurologists and rheumatologists to no avail.
Documents provided to The Daily Mail show hospitals and neurologists have diagnosed Ms Guevremont with “suspected vaccine injury”.
According to the Therapeutic Goods Administration’s (TGA) most recent safety update, there have been a total of 138,932 adverse event reports from nearly 67.8 million Covid vaccine doses, a rate of 0.2 per cent.
But as the TGA does not recognise neurological injuries such as GBS as being associated with the Pfizer vaccine, Ms Guevremont is ineligible for compensation through the federal government’s Covid Vaccine Claims Scheme.
As of May 7, the scheme had paid 147 claims totalling more than $7.7 million, out of a total of 3552 applications received. There were 2149 claims still in progress, 447 had been withdrawn and 809 deemed not payable.
“The compensation scheme is a joke,” Ms Guevremont said.
The GoFundMe has raised more than $15,000 as of Tuesday.
‘She never skipped a beat and always radiated joy and laughter.’ Picture: GoFundMe
The TGA confirmed in a statement that it had sent an email requesting further information after receiving an adverse event report from Ms Guevremont.
“The TGA does not provide individual clinical advice, or diagnose patients from information submitted in adverse event reports,” a spokeswoman said.
“It is not appropriate for the TGA to comment on the content of individual adverse event reports. The TGA strongly encourages vaccine recipients and healthcare professionals to report their experience of suspected adverse events, even if there is only a very small likelihood a vaccine was the cause.”
She said the regulator “uses these reports to look for patterns in reporting that may indicate a new safety signal for a vaccine”.
“When a safety issue is investigated and determined to be potentially linked to a vaccine, the TGA will undertake appropriate regulatory action which may include making changes to a vaccine’s Product Information and communicating information to doctors and the public through the regular Covid-19 Vaccine Safety Report,” she said.
“To date, the TGA has initiated over 43 regulatory actions to include new safety information in Product Information documents.”
‘It’s ruined my life completely and utterly.’ Picture: GoFundMe
She added that under the Covid Vaccine Claims Scheme, which is administered by Services Australia, the neurological conditions of GBS and transverse myelitis were only recognised for AstraZeneca.
It comes after a landmark Covid vaccine injury class action lawsuit was launched in April, with around 500 people initially expressing interest.
The class action, organised and crowd-funded by Queensland GP Dr Melissa McCann, takes aim at the Commonwealth government and the TGA — along with a number of senior public servants — alleging negligence, breach of statutory duty and misfeasance in public office.
The suit alleges that the respondents approved the vaccines “with no proper or reasonable evidentiary or logical basis to reasonably determine the vaccines to be safe, effective and possessing a positive risk-benefit profile”.
“The action will argue that the Therapeutic Goods Administration did not fulfil their duty to properly regulate the Covid-19 vaccines, resulting in considerable harm and damage to Australians,” Natalie Strijland from NR Barbi Solicitor said in a statement in April.
Ms Strijland said the action “arises upon the basis that the government did not truly establish that the vaccines were indeed safe or effective for use by the Australian public, and the claim now proceeds upon the basis that the government in fact acted negligently in approving the vaccines and also by failing to withdraw them after approval based upon the known evidence”.
“Australians who have experienced a serious adverse event following Covid-19 vaccination are invited to step forward and register for this class action,” she said.
