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Photos Show Lost Career, Family Caregiving, and Surgery Scars

Day 2 · 0:30:43 · Shawn Buckley · Vienna Demeduk · Dr. Michelle Worton · Dean Allison

  • 🦷 Before-and-after photos show the thriving dental practice she was forced to abandon.
  • 👨‍👩‍👧 Children aged 8 and 10 became caregivers; mottled skin reactions and ER gaslighting are documented.
  • 🩹 Post-op scalp photos show removal of a central brain cyst while another cyst and declining cognition remain.

Visual evidence of personal and family impact.

← Brain Cysts, US Surgery, and Gatekept Canadian Care | Q&A: Why Do Specialists Refuse Vaccine-Injury Patients? →

Transcript

Shawn Buckley · 0:30:43

David, if you can pull up those photos. Can you share with us— this is a very happy photo. And I hope the camera's off the photo.

Vienna Demeduk · 0:31:11

I loved what I did.

Dr. Michelle Worton · 0:31:18

To not get to decide when my career ended was heartbreaking. That was my dental practice.

Shawn Buckley · 0:31:41

So this is a photo of you before vaccination, um, at your dental practice that you spent years and years building up.

Dr. Michelle Worton · 0:31:50

That's correct.

Shawn Buckley · 0:31:51

So can we move to the next photo? Can you share with us what this is a photo of?

Dr. Michelle Worton · 0:32:05

What people don't realize is that these injuries don't just touch the injured. My children were 8 and 10 when this started. We were living an extraordinary life in the mountains, and my children and my spouse have had to become my caregivers. My children have had to grow up faster than any child should, and they've had to witness far more than any child should ever witness.

Shawn Buckley · 0:32:46

Can we go to the next photo?

Vienna Demeduk · 0:32:51

2019.

Shawn Buckley · 0:32:52

And this photo is around the same time?

Dr. Michelle Worton · 0:32:55

No, that was the summer of 2021.

Shawn Buckley · 0:33:02

Next photo, please. Can you share with us what these photos represent.

Dr. Michelle Worton · 0:33:11

Um, we don't know why my skin takes on that mottled appearance, but that's what happens, um, with sun or heat exposure now, and it takes roughly an hour for that to go away. Um, it's not normal, it's just one of the many symptoms that I present with.

Shawn Buckley · 0:33:35

We have the next photo, please. What, what is this photo of, Michelle?

Dr. Michelle Worton · 0:33:44

Um, with Dave's employment and someone has to work, I'm often, uh, was the— no one could leave me home alone, and so my mom actually drove from Edmonton, um, to pick me up and bring me home with her while Dave was gone. And I just arrived in Edmonton, and when I talk migraines at this point, I still have the brain cyst, so just extraordinary head pain and pressure, pressure behind my eyes, just crippling. And I was admitted into the ER, and again, nothing but gaslighting.

Shawn Buckley · 0:34:22

Going to move to the next photo, and this is a photo of your scalp after they— you had brain surgery.

Dr. Michelle Worton · 0:34:28

That's right. They had to remove a cyst from the very center of my brain, and I have another brain cyst in a different area of my brain.

Shawn Buckley · 0:34:38

Thank you. And, um, so we're— we'll be finished with the photos.

Dr. Michelle Worton · 0:34:42

Is—.

Shawn Buckley · 0:34:42

Is it— am I correct? My understanding is, is actually you don't know how long you're going to be alive.

Dr. Michelle Worton · 0:34:47

We have no long-term treatment.

Shawn Buckley · 0:34:50

And you're— you're not getting better, you're getting worse because you're not getting the treatments that you're supposed to be getting according to the specialists in the United States.

Dr. Michelle Worton · 0:34:58

I needed it 5 years ago.

Shawn Buckley · 0:35:08

Can we actually, David, pull up the next slide? Or no, let's, let's pull that down. I'm actually going to finish my questions and then please ask your question. Through the whole process, has any doctors at all been supportive or been on your side with telling your story or being behind your story with COVID I have had one doctor who's in—.

Dr. Michelle Worton · 0:35:44

So we live in British Columbia. I've had one doctor, he's a general practitioner in Alberta And my first experience in British Columbia, when they blamed it on menopause, I, I knew I was in trouble. And a close friend of mine recommended him, and thankfully he took me on as a patient. I never say his name out loud. He's been ostracized from peer groups in the province, um, simply because he had experience with roughly 14 patients that had adverse reactions. His hope was that in time I would get better. 2.5 Years later, obviously we realized that I was not, and he was ultimately who signed my claim for the Vaccine Injuries Support Program. But because he's in a different province, there's a lot of hurdles interprovincially in accessing medical care. So he tries to help me where he can. But there are a lot of barriers in Canada.

Shawn Buckley · 0:36:46

How has your, how has your not-for-profit, um, how has it helped yourself and other people so far since you've established it?

Dr. Michelle Worton · 0:36:57

It's a lifeline to be able to have individuals like myself, like your next witness, um, be able to share and lean on each other, um, to not feel isolated, to not be abandoned, to be heard and to be seen is incredible. Um, we're in the process at this point right now where we've submitted our, not our charitable status application, so we're hoping that we can get that approved. We're stepping in where the government hasn't, and so if anyone thinks that the Vaccine Injury Support Program or the new program is assisting Canadians, it is not. The new program is no different than the Vaccine Injury Support Program. And so our goal is to create a medical care fund so that we can pay for Canadians to get healthcare.

Dean Allison · 0:37:49

Have you applied to the new program, or do you know anyone that has?

Dr. Michelle Worton · 0:37:55

Certainly. So my claim was rejected, submitted April 2023. Rejected September 2024, and I have confirmation of vaccine injury. We have been in the appeals process. September 16th will be 2 years. We are now waiting, and I had to submit paperwork via mail, not email, to plead my case on why my appeal should be considered. With the Public Health Agency of Canada, even though it was already approved as an appeal with VISSP. Our organization has engaged countless times with Members of Parliament, with the Public Health Agency of Canada, with VISSP, offering program recommendations. The program is a dismal failure. It's a bureaucratic nightmare. My mom had to be added to my file before I went for brain surgery.

Dr. Michelle Worton · 0:38:58

I absolutely could not navigate this without her. They make it so difficult, and this is not my story alone. Thousands of Canadians are experiencing the same medical gaslighting, a federal program that's failed, financial hardship, moral injury, spouses that are caregivers When I say we're abandoned, we are absolutely abandoned in this country. And we were told that no one would be left behind. We have been left behind. No one wants to talk about us. The pandemic is over. The pandemic is not over for us. We cannot relive this again.

Dean Allison · 0:39:51

I want to thank you for telling your story today.

Shawn Buckley · 0:39:53

Uh, I don't have any more questions, but I do want to apologize for what you've had to deal with through the Member of Parliament, the, the Parliament in general, and the government. So thank you for being here.

Dr. Michelle Worton · 0:40:08

Thank you for being here.

Shawn Buckley · 0:40:09

I Thank you for sharing your story, for coming up, and, uh, for being courageous enough to not, uh, let it go or, uh, to, to give up on it.