Carol Messenger Sworn: From Fire Captain to Sudden Paralysis¶
Day 3 · 1:04:09 · Dean Allison · Carol Messenger
- 🚒 Healthy 22-year Vancouver Fire Rescue captain and fitness enthusiast received Pfizer then Moderna doses under workplace mandate.
- 🌅 Three weeks after the second dose she suffered acute pins-and-needles, lost all lower-body control on a boat, and was airlifted with a 5 cm spinal lesion.
- 🩺 Diagnosed with transverse myelitis, she endured catheters, steroids and lingering paralysis of perineum, thighs and left foot.
High-functioning first responder recounts overnight catastrophic neurological injury.
← Q&A: Why Share Christy’s Story on the Record | Ongoing Neurological and Autonomic Sequelae →
Transcript¶
Dean Allison · 1:04:09
Our next witness is Carol Messenger. Carol, will you take the Bible in your right hand? Carol Messenger, do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God? I do. Now, your doctors have diagnosed what you're about to share with us as vaccine injury, and you're one of the few that even the Vaccine Injury Support Program agrees you're vaccine injured. And you did not have COVID prior to your injuries.
Carol Messenger · 1:04:44
I did not.
Dean Allison · 1:04:45
So, um, just to introduce you to the inquiry, you were 58 years of age, you have four adult kids, you've been married for 22 years. I believe two of your kids are here in support of you today. You had 22 years with Vancouver Fire Rescue Service, you were a captain for 8 of those years, and prior to your vaccination you were always in the gym minimum 3 days a week. You played pickleball, lots of walking and hiking. And just to back up, I mean, in your profession, you had to maintain a certain level of physical fitness. In any event, your health was excellent.
Carol Messenger · 1:05:25
Yes.
Dean Allison · 1:05:25
So can you share with us what happened with your vaccinations?
Carol Messenger · 1:05:31
Yes.
Carol Messenger · 1:05:33
So June 24th, 2021, I had my second vaccination. It was a Moderna. Prior to that, in April, I had my first vaccination, which was Pfizer. No, no side effects from my first vaccination. I was still currently employed as a captain with Vancouver Fire Rescue Services and soon to retire, and it was mandated that we were to have vaccines. At that point in my career, I actually was not on the fire trucks. I was more in an administrative role doing recruitment and outreach, but it was mandatory that everyone receive the vaccinations. So I did that literally on my way out of retirement with my husband too, who was 27 years in the fire service in Vancouver. And so literally 3 weeks and 6 days after the day before my 54th birthday on July 18th, 2021, with no signs or symptoms really at that point.
Carol Messenger · 1:06:39
I was very aware and very super healthy. I had no health conditions whatsoever. I'm very aware of my body. And we happened to have our youngest and her boyfriend and we were out in Quadra Island. We retired to Vancouver Island, to the Comox Valley, and we were out on our boat and up in the morning watching the beautiful sunrise at 6 30 AM, my husband and I. And all of a sudden I had this very odd sensation on the backside of my body. It was really hard to explain, like pins and needles, but just weird, for lack of better words, from the back of my butt all the way down to my feet. And then I was like, oh, I have to go to the bathroom. Like, it was like fight-flight, like an experience I'd never had. So I made it down into the bathroom and lost all control of my bodily functions. And then I couldn't stand up and cleaning myself up, and I was determined I wasn't going to call for help until I cleaned up. And I thought I was having a stroke, and I was like, I'm a first responder, I'm not supposed to be ill.
Carol Messenger · 1:07:44
This is what I've done my whole life. I'm not the patient. And, uh, so I called for help. Uh, they held the ferry, we managed to get off, uh, the island, and they took me to Campbell River Hospital. I spent the first 3 days there, and I couldn't feel anything from the waist down. I couldn't walk initially. I couldn't go to the bathroom. I couldn't feel myself. And they didn't really realize as they were assessing me what was going on. And then I was like, well, I really have to go to the bathroom. And I could all run some hot water. Push yourself into the bathroom. And then it was like, well, yeah. So I had to have a catheter and because I couldn't go to the bathroom, they talked to neurology at Victoria General and they ended up transporting me 3, about 3 days, 3 or 4 days down to Victoria General to the neurology division. And I was told when I arrived there that they found a very large 5-centimeter lesion between my T10 and T11.
Dean Allison · 1:08:46
And they didn't know why.
Carol Messenger · 1:08:47
It's like, what is this healthy woman doing here and collapsed and paralyzed? And so I was also told I was by myself because my husband had to get the boat back and the kids collect the RV to drive 3 hours down. No one could really come. They were just sort of opening up, I think, the hospitals at that time to maybe having 1 or 2 visitors. So I was transported alone, taken down, and the neurologist told me when I got down there, he says, it's either transverse myelitis or it's going to be a glioma tumor. And if it's a glioma tumor, I'm sorry. And I'd never experienced like, whoa, you're telling me I have this, I'll be dead.
Dean Allison · 1:09:27
So the—.
Carol Messenger · 1:09:29
As I started to actually start to get a bit of sensation back, they concluded it was transverse myelitis and gave me massive steroids and then released me 9 days, 10 days later. To come home.
Dean Allison · 1:09:44
Now, I just want to slow you down. So you, you had kind of lost this total feeling, but even— but today you, you, you still— there are areas where you don't have feeling.
Carol Messenger · 1:09:54
Yes, I still have, for lack of better words, paralysis in my lower buttocks, my perineum, my vagina, my rectum, my thighs down to my feet, especially my left foot. I can't feel part of my heel or go on my toes. That just have— I don't want to say permanent damage, spinal cord damage, because I'm always optimistic that I'll always get micro improvements. And I've improved significantly well considering it's such a rare autoimmune disorder.
Dean Allison · 1:10:26
Right. And, you know, you told us about this catheter. My understanding is you had that catheter for 1.5 months.
Carol Messenger · 1:10:33
I did. Full time.
Dean Allison · 1:10:34
And, and it's still a dysfunctional bladder. Like, you're And bowels.
Carol Messenger · 1:10:39
Yeah, yeah. Bowels not so bad anymore, but it's, it's always in the back of your mind what may or may not happen. And then I had to be taught how to actually self-catheter, which I didn't even know what that was. So I did that for many months through lots of rehab and training and pelvic floor on top of everything else as I started to gradually get sensation back.
Dean Allison · 1:11:03
And, you know, I've seen you walking around, but you, you've assured me you walk with a limp.