Carrie Lynn Sakamoto: First Vaccine-Injured Witness¶
Day 1 · 4:45:34 · Shawn Buckley · Carrie Lynn Sakamoto
- 👩🌾 Healthy acreage mother of three took AstraZeneca then Pfizer in 2021 and was later recognized as vaccine-injured.
- 🔥 After the second shot she developed fever, neck nodes, ‘fire in the brain,’ Bell’s palsy, feeding tubes, and lasting synkinesis.
- 🧠 Pain meds blunt the burning but drive memory loss scored as early-onset Alzheimer’s; vertigo and disability persist.
First injured witness sworn; pre-injury life and cascading post-Pfizer injuries.
← Volunteer Appeal: Break the Silence on Vaccine Injury | Q&A: Sakamoto Family Toll and Failed Compensation →
Transcript¶
Shawn Buckley · 4:45:34
Thank you. Um, our next witness Kerry Lynn Sakamoto. Kerry, Kerry, welcome to the Allison Inquiry LIVE. You are our very first vaccine-injured witness. We're very pleased to have you. Can you take the Bible in your right hand? And Kerry, do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God? Please be seated. So I, I wanted— before we begin, I'm going to go through, um, somewhat of your history, um, but I wanted to ask you why it was important to come here and testify.
Carrie Lynn Sakamoto · 4:46:23
It's a space for us to talk about what's happened. We're censored online for for saying words like COVID vaccine, COVID vaccine injury. So being able to put this on public record and to be able to talk here today where there's live streaming, um, is really important to me.
Shawn Buckley · 4:46:45
Now I'm going to lead you a little bit. You have been clearly diagnosed as vaccine injured, and even the Vaccine Injury Support Program agrees that your vaccine injured, and you did not have COVID before you were vaccine injured. Is that all of that right?
Speaker I · 4:47:02
Yes, that's correct.
Shawn Buckley · 4:47:04
Can you share with us kind of what your life was like and what your health was like before you were— you took the vaccines?
Carrie Lynn Sakamoto · 4:47:13
Yeah, I was living on an acreage. We owned an acreage just outside of Lethbridge, and I have 3 children that I was raising at home. My husband was working out of the home and we were also starting, we had just started a seed business. So we had 28 acres and we were just working away. We'd had that farm for 15 years when I got injured.
Shawn Buckley · 4:47:44
Right. So, you know, you're a vibrant young mother. You've got an acreage and a seed farm. Farm. You're pretty busy.
Carrie Lynn Sakamoto · 4:47:51
Yes, very.
Shawn Buckley · 4:47:52
Any health concerns before? No. So I'm just gonna— we're just gonna pull up two photos. I want everyone to have, you know, a look at a view before vaccine injuries. So, David, can we pull that up? So can you tell us about this first photo?
Carrie Lynn Sakamoto · 4:48:10
Yeah, that's what I used to look like, and it feels like forever ago since I was that person. It completely changed me, not just the way I look.
Shawn Buckley · 4:48:26
And it, it's changed how people react to you also, right?
Carrie Lynn Sakamoto · 4:48:30
Yes. And it's changed my way of thinking.
Shawn Buckley · 4:48:34
Can you share a little bit about that?
Carrie Lynn Sakamoto · 4:48:38
I feel abandoned from the government that said they were going to be here for us. We were told that if we did this, things could go back to normal. We were told that we wouldn't be able to do things if we didn't get it. And I'm sorry, I have short-term memory loss and I forget what you asked me.
Shawn Buckley · 4:49:08
No, no trouble at all. So, um, can we go to the next photo, please? And this is just another photo of when you were healthy, and these are your 3 boys and your husband. And is this photo on your acreage?
Carrie Lynn Sakamoto · 4:49:29
Yes.
Shawn Buckley · 4:49:30
Okay. So can you tell us then what happened? My understanding is is, is on April 1st, 2024, you had your first shot, which was AstraZeneca. And that was— can you tell us about that one?
Carrie Lynn Sakamoto · 4:49:46
So I had my— yes, I had my first vaccine in April of 2021. I chose AstraZeneca. I had received the flu shot, um, probably a few years before that, and I also had all my childhood vaccines vaccines. So I chose to get that one in particular just because it was closest to the flu vaccine, from what I was told. And that's how I chose AstraZeneca.
Shawn Buckley · 4:50:23
Okay. And then on June 18th, 2021, you got a second shot, which was Pfizer. Can you tell us, did anything happen that that day?
Carrie Lynn Sakamoto · 4:50:33
I got sick right away and it was flu symptoms and it was a lot of the same symptoms that my husband was having who had the vaccine at the same time and the same one. So I wasn't too concerned at first. Um, from what I had been hearing on the news, there were side effects such as rash, um, fever. There wasn't many. I went back and looked at my list on the sheet that I signed, and, um, it was just flu symptoms basically and rashes. Um, I didn't really think much of it until until about the 7th or 8th day of having it, and my husband was getting better.
Carrie Lynn Sakamoto · 4:51:33
He was feeling much better, and I, I got worse, progressively worse.
Shawn Buckley · 4:51:40
What, what was happening?
Carrie Lynn Sakamoto · 4:51:41
That my lymph nodes on the right side of my neck swelled up, and I had a really high fever. I wanted to go to the doctor, but because of COVID restrictions and I had a fever, they wouldn't see me in person. So I had to do a telephone call with my GP at the time. She prescribed me some antibiotics because over the phone she diagnosed me with tonsil stones. She said it was likely from the fever that I had been having. She said if it didn't change after taking the medication, to call her back and they would do something else.
Shawn Buckley · 4:52:27
Now, the next morning, there was something new that was happening. Can you share that with us?
Carrie Lynn Sakamoto · 4:52:33
Yes, I started getting pain in my brain, and it was extreme pain, and it was so bad that I call it fire in my brain. I have it to this day. Um, it was so bad at first. Um, I was vomiting a lot, and that was the main reason I went to the hospital at the time. When I got to the hospital in emergency, they thought I—.
Shawn Buckley · 4:53:00
Can I just slow you down? So you're talking about this burning in your brain, and, and there's a couple of things. So you actually still have pain in your brain?
Carrie Lynn Sakamoto · 4:53:09
Yes, to this day. I take medication for it, which is causing my memory loss.
Speaker A · 4:53:15
Okay.
Shawn Buckley · 4:53:15
So how, like, how strong was this pain? Is there any other way you can describe it for us?
Carrie Lynn Sakamoto · 4:53:21
Fire. It just feels like my brain is on fire. Most people, you think about your brain, it's in your head, but when it's hurting, you can feel where it is. And I could feel my brain. And the pain is, it's just a really strong burning sensation, and it's all over my head.
Shawn Buckley · 4:53:44
Okay, and you're vomiting also?
Carrie Lynn Sakamoto · 4:53:47
Yes, yeah, I was very sick. Um, I couldn't handle the pain. When I went back to the hospital, or when I went to the hospital, they thought I was having migraines, and so they gave me some medication for migraines and um, IV fluids and, um, something to calm my stomach and sent me home.
Shawn Buckley · 4:54:12
Okay, but you didn't end up staying at home for long, did you? Can you share what happened?
Carrie Lynn Sakamoto · 4:54:17
Soon as the medications wore off, I was in the exact same position I had been in. At this point, I'd lost a lot of weight because I hadn't been eating, and then I was getting sick all the time. So So we went— I'm sorry, I forget what I—.
Shawn Buckley · 4:54:35
Oh, no, it's perfectly okay. So I was just talking. You were telling us that you had gone to the hospital and they thought it was a migraine. And so they gave you a migraine medication and I think a painkiller. I'm extrapolating. And then you went home and I was asking really what happened after that?
Carrie Lynn Sakamoto · 4:54:54
Yes, the medications wore off and I was sick again, right back where I was. And so we went back to the hospital, and it was on that trip back to the hospital that, um, my face felt like it was swelling up. And so I was looking in the side mirror of our car, and, um, I could see that my face had dropped, this whole side of my face. I thought I was having a stroke, right?
Shawn Buckley · 4:55:24
But at the hospital they tell you it's Bell's policy.
Carrie Lynn Sakamoto · 4:55:27
Yes.
Shawn Buckley · 4:55:28
And what happens next?
Carrie Lynn Sakamoto · 4:55:32
They sent me home again. They said that the hospital was full of COVID patients and because of restrictions they were only taking emergencies. And so they, they said that this would probably correct itself. They gave me me some steroids and, um, sent me home. They said if anything changed to come back again.
Shawn Buckley · 4:55:59
And, and it changed really quickly, didn't it?
Carrie Lynn Sakamoto · 4:56:03
Yes. Again, when— as soon as the medications that they were giving me wore off, I was throwing up, the burning in my brain, and now I had half of my face was paralyzed, my eye was paralyzed open, so I had to patch it. I was experiencing some hearing loss and balance issues.
Shawn Buckley · 4:56:29
Great. So basically you were losing your ability to walk for a while.
Carrie Lynn Sakamoto · 4:56:33
Um, I didn't know—.
Speaker B · 4:56:35
I—.
Carrie Lynn Sakamoto · 4:56:35
It was more strength. I had no strength. Um, so we went back to the hospital. I was experiencing numbness on the left side of on my face, and I was worried that it was going to spread to my eye and I wouldn't be able to see.
Shawn Buckley · 4:56:53
Okay. And then also, my understanding is, is you lost the ability to swallow. You had to learn to chew your food again and how to swallow again.
Carrie Lynn Sakamoto · 4:57:02
Yeah, I had lost a lot of weight, and they were really concerned because this paralyzation comes my throat and actually to about here in my shoulder, my back.
Speaker I · 4:57:17
I'm sorry.
Shawn Buckley · 4:57:21
Oh no, you're doing really good. I'm just going to ask David if he can pull up the next photo.
Carrie Lynn Sakamoto · 4:57:28
I was going to say, I'm sorry, that I was put on feeding tubes because, yes, I couldn't chew my food and swallow. I had to learn how to do that again.
Shawn Buckley · 4:57:36
Right. And you were in the hospital, I think, for 17 days.
Carrie Lynn Sakamoto · 4:57:39
Yes.
Shawn Buckley · 4:57:41
Now David's pulled up a photo here. Can you tell us what that photo shows?
Carrie Lynn Sakamoto · 4:57:46
Um, that photo shows when my eye was still paralyzed open, and, um, that's an infection that I get quite often. That one was particularly bad. You can see the bubble underneath, um, and you can see all the redness around my eye where I had to put the patch on and off several times a day, which is like a Band-Aid, so you're ripping the skin around your eye eye because I had to put— constantly be putting, uh, gel in my eye so it wouldn't dry out and lose my eye.
Shawn Buckley · 4:58:17
She basically couldn't close her eyelid.
Carrie Lynn Sakamoto · 4:58:18
I couldn't close my eye, correct.
Shawn Buckley · 4:58:21
And that's still an ongoing problem, right?
Carrie Lynn Sakamoto · 4:58:22
So now I have a condition called synkinesis. It's healed back wrong. All the nerves are connected wrong, so I have pulling in my face and my eye droops and it just kind of does what it wants. I can't— I have blurry and double vision out of that eye. I do wear glasses that help with light sensitivity, but for today I'm not going to wear them.
Shawn Buckley · 4:58:51
And my understanding is, as part of that synchronous kinesis, you also— your face feels like it's getting pulled, right?
Carrie Lynn Sakamoto · 4:58:59
Yes, it's constant pulling and cramping. It's very painful. And the more I the talk, the worse it gets.
Shawn Buckley · 4:59:05
Yeah, well, we certainly appreciate you sharing with us. David, can you go to the next picture, please? So can you share with us what this is a picture of?
Speaker I · 4:59:13
That was—.
Carrie Lynn Sakamoto · 4:59:14
I think that was the first day my mom was able to come up and see me, and she had brought some things, some pajamas and stuff for me from her friends, actually, that were well-wishing me.
Shawn Buckley · 4:59:26
And is the tube in your nose then a feeding tube because you can't Follow?
Carrie Lynn Sakamoto · 4:59:30
Yes.
Shawn Buckley · 4:59:31
And your eye is patched because you can't close your eye?
Carrie Lynn Sakamoto · 4:59:35
Correct.
Shawn Buckley · 4:59:36
Okay, David, can you go to the next photo? And, and this is you being on the day you're discharged from the hospital, or not?
Carrie Lynn Sakamoto · 4:59:44
No, that was actually the first time I was able to leave my room. Um, my husband put me in a wheelchair and we were able to go outside, which was also the first time I was able to see my children. They were not allowed in the hospital because of COVID restrictions.
Speaker L · 5:00:00
Okay.
Shawn Buckley · 5:00:01
So you've shared with us, like, for today, you still have that burning in your brain. You also shared that you have some memory loss. Can you share with us kind of how that affects you day to day?
Carrie Lynn Sakamoto · 5:00:14
The memory loss is really bad. It seems to be getting worse. My doctors have said that that it is medication, medication related, they believe. But I haven't been able to go off the medication to be able to tell. They did some tests on me because I noticed that I was leaving things on. I couldn't remember certain things, really important events in my life that I should know. So I went to my GP and they did some testing, and I tested as early onset Alzheimer's. Um, they, they told me that it is medication related, right?
Shawn Buckley · 5:01:02
So this is medication that you're taking because of the burning in your brain, and it keeps the pain down?
Speaker I · 5:01:08
Yes.
Shawn Buckley · 5:01:09
And you can't go— you've been told you can't go off that medication or you'll die. Am I right about that?
Carrie Lynn Sakamoto · 5:01:13
I don't die, but I end up Right back where I am. Very sick. Very sick.
Shawn Buckley · 5:01:18
Right. But at the same time, the medication that you rely on is affecting your memory.
Carrie Lynn Sakamoto · 5:01:23
I'm having a side effect from the side effects of the medications.
Shawn Buckley · 5:01:29
And then you also have vertigo.
Carrie Lynn Sakamoto · 5:01:32
Yes, I have two types of vertigo.
Shawn Buckley · 5:01:34
What's, what's been the worst, most difficult part of this?
Carrie Lynn Sakamoto · 5:01:43
For me, it's different than a lot of people because my doctors were the ones who told me this was a vaccine injury. So I've had doctors on my side the whole time encouraging me. At the same time, they, they don't know how to treat me because it's new and it's hard to talk about about. Um, they say this is a Bell's palsy-like because it's caused from this particular vaccine. And I'm sorry, I forget the question.
Shawn Buckley · 5:02:20
Oh, you did good. I know. Thank you.