Jasmeet Grewal Sworn: Elite Athlete Reduced to Feeding Pumps¶
Day 2 · 2:32:54 · Shawn Buckley · Jasmeet Grewal · Dean Allison · Michael Oesch
- ⚾ At 31 the business-development manager played multiple softball, basketball, soccer and golf leagues and danced at a Raptors halftime show.
- 💉 Two months after his second Pfizer dose extreme leg cramping, stiffness and tingling began and steadily worsened.
- 🧠 Family doctor and first neurologist dismissed symptoms as psychological; an ER later labeled it functional neurological disorder.
Background of Jasmeet Grewal and the onset of progressive neurological collapse.
← Q&A: Should Alternative Therapies Be Encouraged for the Injured? | EMG Reveals Total Demyelination; Six Months in Hospital, Never Walks Again →
Transcript¶
Shawn Buckley · 2:32:54
Our next witness is Jasmeet Grewal. Jasmeet, we're very pleased to have you here. And first of all, we'll swear you in. Jasmeet Kaur, do you promise to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? Um, I just wanted to state, because I, I know from an earlier interview, you're going to describe injuries. You never had COVID before that, like you never had COVID at all. Um, can you share with us about your life before vaccination? Because you're only 35 now, so you'd have been 30 at the time.
Jasmeet Grewal · 2:33:36
Uh, I want to start off by saying, my time before, before this was— it's what I felt was normal. Uh, I was, I was very active. I felt that I was almost on top of the world. I felt I was very fit. I love being outside. I love the company I was with, you know, was always, always very sociable, I feel like. And, uh, the— I, I was always looking forward to what can come next with my given ability, and it was always to what sport can I play next, when can I see my family and friends next, when can I be outside and be active And it almost feels as if it never happened since it happened. It would have been 31 when I initially had— when I went through this, but it was 31 when it happened.
Shawn Buckley · 2:34:42
I'm going to ask David to pull up some photos that we have. So you were working as a business development manager for an AI company. And when you talk about sports, you were on 2 softball teams and a substitute on the 3rd. You were playing in a basketball league. You golfed, you played soccer, and also dance was a big part of your life.
Dean Allison · 2:35:04
Yes.
Shawn Buckley · 2:35:04
We're going to play a video about that. Sure. So you were an extremely sports young man, fellow. And David, can we pull up the first? So this is a photo of you golfing.
Jasmeet Grewal · 2:35:16
Yes, it was.
Shawn Buckley · 2:35:17
Yes, it was. And can we go up to the next one? This is you playing baseball.
Jasmeet Grewal · 2:35:23
That's right.
Shawn Buckley · 2:35:24
Can we go to the next one? This is, this is you involved in dance.
Jasmeet Grewal · 2:35:30
That's right.
Shawn Buckley · 2:35:30
And we're, we're also going to play two videos. So we splice them together.
Jasmeet Grewal · 2:35:36
Okay.
Shawn Buckley · 2:35:38
And let's just play them and feel free to comment while they're playing or comment afterwards. And the next one is at— oh, I see that you're— did we not have— yeah, halftime at the Raptors show through those your quads and, and both muscles by hyperextending. Actually, so this isn't the video I wanted, David. We had a video of him at a Raptors game. Did it not take on the last video? Okay, well, that's the same we had. We had We had spent a lot of time getting a video of you. You were at a Raptors halftime game in a whole dance troupe.
Jasmeet Grewal · 2:36:40
Yeah.
Shawn Buckley · 2:36:41
Um, doing this, this traditional dance, and it was absolutely amazing. I'll see if we can get that before the end of the inquiry to play.
Jasmeet Grewal · 2:36:48
I can quickly describe it, um, if—.
Shawn Buckley · 2:36:50
Please do.
Jasmeet Grewal · 2:36:52
Uh, basically, uh, it was a, it was a South Asian event at the Toronto Raptors halftime show sponsored by Navbhati at the time. Uh, what I did was my Initial idea was that I didn't want to get on another gentleman's shoulders. He's a friend of mine as well, uh, but at the time, the other person I was supposed to wasn't able to at the time, so he volunteered myself. Um, basically, that was the idea, was that I would— he would hold me onto his shoulder so my legs would be under him, and they would basically spin me around. So I would go flat, my back would be kind of parallel to the ground, and kind of spin me around for maybe 10 seconds, and then find myself again, then make myself— help myself down, and then we continued on with the dance for the, for the halftime show. An incredible experience.
Shawn Buckley · 2:37:38
Yeah. And again, we might try to pull that up before the end of the thing. So, so I just wanted to make the point that you were extremely active, extremely fit, extremely into sports. Um, you get your first Pfizer shot in May of 2021, and then you get on June 28th, '21 your second. Can you tell us what happened?
Jasmeet Grewal · 2:37:57
It was the end of June 2021 when I got that second shot. I was always a believer that nothing— I was— I felt very healthy. I felt it, it just almost felt like I was on top of the world and that nothing could really bring me down. Um, and I felt comfortable taking it as well.
Jasmeet Grewal · 2:38:15
I—.
Jasmeet Grewal · 2:38:15
There wasn't really any sort of specific hesitation in me taking the vaccine. It was soon after, I would have probably said about maybe 2 months after the second vaccine when I went along my regular schedule of activities and I would play sports continuously. But I would start to get this extreme cramping, especially in my legs. It was throughout my entire body, but especially in my legs and my hamstrings where usually maybe after a few days I could maybe get through it, you know, a little bit of stretching, maybe some, some heat, some therapy with it as well, some direct massages. And I, and I felt pretty comfortable after. Well, for whatever reason, this one just continued, and it felt as if my legs were starting to get very stiff, especially my hamstrings, to start off. As the weeks went along, as the months kind of went along, I always was just avoiding the fact that something could be wrong, something— it could be getting worse. But it did intend— it absolutely feel a lot worse.
Jasmeet Grewal · 2:39:15
But I was so avoidant to go to the, uh, go to the doctor, go try and get it checked out, because I felt like there shouldn't be anything wrong. I was, I was young at the time. I was— felt like I was in my absolute prime physically as well, whether it be weight or just my overall ability. So I just tried different types of, types of therapies. I tried going to different friends for support, some physical therapists, some— any sort of direct therapy I can do. But for whatever reason, it just kept getting worse. And over that time, over the, over those months afterwards leading into the new year, I started to get a lot more tingling feeling in my legs. That's kind of where the initial symptom where I thought that something was absolutely wrong, and I didn't feel comfortable in the state that I was in, especially because nothing was getting better. It just kept getting consistently worse, which was uncomfortable. I started going to the family doctor, getting those general tests done. It started with just blood tests. Those tests, he couldn't find much from it. They also have a questionnaire that they wanted me to answer, and almost immediately after answering the questionnaire, he said it does seem as something more psychological, something that's in my head that might be causing adverse effects with the rest of my body.
Jasmeet Grewal · 2:40:29
I, I did not completely agree at the time, but I also wanted to understand that it could be a possibility. So I took the necessary efforts afterwards to attend to my mental health and, and whatever might be bothering me mentally as well. But as the months went along, it just kept getting consistently worse, where I would lose balance in my legs. I was always kind of tumbling and fumbling around, which wasn't very common for me. I always felt very comfortable in my own stride and my own posture. But the, the sudden missteps and the sudden bumping into walls and the, and the maybe the missing a stair here and there was very odd and confusing. So when I got initial visit with a neurologist, he, and that was close to when this video that we have up now was taken, he also associated with some, some type of a psychological psychological, psychological issue at the time.
Shawn Buckley · 2:41:27
So can I, can I slow you down? Do you mind if I name the neurologist? And we don't have to. So you see a neurologist?
Jasmeet Grewal · 2:41:33
Yes.
Shawn Buckley · 2:41:34
And you're having these really gait problems?
Jasmeet Grewal · 2:41:37
Yes.
Shawn Buckley · 2:41:38
Like it's— you're also, you haven't described for us, but I mean, we're talking shooting pain. You are uncomfortable.
Jasmeet Grewal · 2:41:43
Yes.
Shawn Buckley · 2:41:44
And this is constant. So, so you're suffering horribly in pain. Now you're having coordination issues. We're going to show this video, okay? But a neurologist is basically telling you this is in your head.
Jasmeet Grewal · 2:41:55
Yes.
Shawn Buckley · 2:41:56
Okay, so we'll watch this video. Yeah, man, no, I see that you're, you're, you're really trying to stabilize through your, through those, your quads and, and those muscles by hyperextending there.
Jasmeet Grewal · 2:42:08
Cool.
Shawn Buckley · 2:42:08
You want to try walking here? Yeah, if you can.
Michael Oesch · 2:42:12
Have you fell?
Jasmeet Grewal · 2:42:12
Have you been involved?
Shawn Buckley · 2:42:13
You have? Yeah. Yes, good. And then whenever you're ready, just go grab a seat right there if you need to. Yeah, and you're just struggling a little bit with where your body weight is, right? What are you feeling?
Michael Oesch · 2:42:44
What do you—.
Shawn Buckley · 2:42:46
Instability in your legs? Yeah, yeah, no, they are. So this is— this video is taken around the time a neurologist is telling you this is in your head, basically, that you're mentally ill. That's right. And How do you deal with that when you know you're suffering? And, and you haven't even talked about this shooting pain and, and that to us.
Jasmeet Grewal · 2:43:15
The symptoms that I was going through, I mentioned to the doctor at the time. I, I tried to describe it as, as best to my ability to— it was so hard to kind of put into words what exactly was happening with my whole body. Um, but with that line of questioning, I, I still tried to believe in the medical professional I was speaking to. And after that, after that initial visit with the doctor, I went to, uh, emergency downtown as well. Um, they also did a similar type of neurological examinations, and they generally diagnosed me with, uh, FND, which was functional neurological disorder. Also kind of, also kind of up in the air and, and questionable at the time. I also did not know what to take from it. Um, we were kind of curious, uh, my apologies, but going back to the initial doctor that I met, he also wanted to get an EMG done. It's called an electromyogram, um, but there was no rush on it at the time when I, when I first went to see him. So my goal was to get that test done as soon as possible. I thought that would be a very important test to determine if in fact it is in my head or not.
Jasmeet Grewal · 2:44:20
I felt like an objective test that could be done where there is no way that I can deny a, a fact of whatever the result of the test would be, would be almost undeniable at that point. After a few months went by, it's— I, I changed from the doctors to, to another one. He also felt there was something wrong just hearing my symptoms and seeing me briefly.
Shawn Buckley · 2:44:44
I'm just going to abbreviate.