Adam Burgess Sworn: Remembering Sister Christy¶
Day 3 · 0:44:51 · Dean Allison · Adam Burgess
- 🌟 Christy, 36, was an active yoga practitioner, traveler and parole-board worker who was the compassionate glue of her Yukon family despite lupus.
- 📸 A final conscious photo from their mother’s March 2021 birthday underscores how suddenly her life ended.
- 💪 Brother Adam, an equipment operator, describes her fearless spirit and the lasting hole left by her death.
Family tribute opens testimony on a young woman’s vaccine-related death.
← Reproductive Harms: Ovarian Inflammation and Miscarriages | Christy’s Collapse Days After Second Moderna Dose →
Transcript¶
Dean Allison · 0:44:51
So our next witness is Adam Burgess. Adam, can you reach over and grab that Bible and put it in your right hand? Adam Burgess, do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?
Dean Allison · 0:45:07
I do, so help me God.
Dean Allison · 0:45:10
You are here today to speak about your sister Christy Burgess.
Dean Allison · 0:45:15
Yes.
Dean Allison · 0:45:17
Who was 36. She died on September 7th— or I'm sorry, she was born on December 17th, 1984. Um, just to introduce you personally, as you're— you are 40 years old right now.
Dean Allison · 0:45:29
Correct.
Dean Allison · 0:45:29
And your equipment operator in Spruce Grove, Alberta. Yes. Can you tell us what Christy was doing and what her health was like before the vaccine?
Dean Allison · 0:45:41
Christy was very active. Um, she was— she would do yoga, she would do paddleboarding, she was very active in the gym. She did struggle with, uh, lupus. I believe it's called SLE. And some kidney issues. But, um, and, you know, her health would, uh, fluctuate, go down and up sometimes. But, uh, for the most part, she was very full of life.
Dean Allison · 0:46:13
And my understanding is that she was working for, I think, the parole board with juvenile offenders at the time. And you also, um, communicated to me that really she was the glue in your family. Can you kind of share with us about that?
Adam Burgess · 0:46:30
Yeah, she was a, she was a very special person. She was completely fearless, very courageous, but also very compassionate and loving. Um, she just had a, a big smile that was infectious and would light up everyone around her. Um, and that included from the small town that we grew up in, in Teslin, Yukon, to, to Whitehorse where she would end her life. Um, she, um, I, I thought that she was so cool growing up, and I really deeply cared about her opinion. And, and, uh, she would, she would, if she didn't agree with something, she would ask questions in a compassionate way and really saw the best in people. And she to this day has a lot of friends and family that, uh, that miss her terribly and still think about her on a daily basis.
Dean Allison · 0:47:29
Just going to ask, um, David to pull up a, a photo that you provided. This is your sister, sister Christy.
Adam Burgess · 0:47:37
This was the last time I saw Christy conscious. This is my mom's birthday, March 26th, April 2020— or March 26th, 2021. And, uh, I wish I had stayed there longer. Um, because that was the last time I saw her conscious.
Dean Allison · 0:47:55
She, um, she appears to be very charismatic and just has a lovely smile. Is that who she was?
Adam Burgess · 0:48:01
Yeah, she was. She made everyone feel very comfortable being around her, and, and you just, you just wanted to talk to her and see what she thought about things. And she just had this, this great spirit and and, uh, unbelievable, um, thirst for life. Like, she would— she traveled so much. It was so impressive to me. She traveled to Vietnam and Cambodia, and she went to India to learn how to be a yoga instructor, uh, for over a month. She went to Japan. She just never said no to these big experiences in life. And, and even if she was suffering with her health, or even if she wasn't, she was just completely fearless. And I still really admire her to this day about that.
Dean Allison · 0:48:53
Now, um, I'm going to ask, before you share with us the injury experience of your sister Christy, you, um, you got vaccinated yourself?
Adam Burgess · 0:49:03
Yes.
Dean Allison · 0:49:04
You got your first shot on March 13th, 2001, and then you got your second shot both Moderna on April 14th, 2001. Can you share with us what your experience was after the second shot?
Adam Burgess · 0:49:16
Um, I was on a Wednesday. I went home. I, I started feeling a little off that evening, and I went to bed. And the next day I woke up and I was about as sick as I've ever been.
Adam Burgess · 0:49:28
I had—.
Adam Burgess · 0:49:29
I don't really get headaches. I had splitting headaches on the right side of my head. I had sweats. I had muscle and joint fatigue. I had a fever. I had nausea. I could not get out of bed. I was really, really in a bad way. But because of COVID restrictions, I wasn't going to go to the doctor. And I, I just really thought that, like, I hadn't really been informed that these were going to be side effects. I They really sort of advertised it as the side effects being a lot more mild. But I had a really bad time with it and I started coming out of it that Sunday night and I was able to go for a walk with my mother and tell her that my wife and I were now expecting children that we had been trying for for a very long time.
Adam Burgess · 0:50:29
And, uh, we got to have a couple of hours as a family as being extremely happy and looking forward to the future. And then that night I received the call that Christy, uh, was unresponsive.