Q&A: What would you like to see happen as a result of this inquiry?¶
Day 4 · 2:43:13 · Dean Allison · Glen Motz · Shannon Holmes
- 🔍 Daniel calls for transparency, public airing of what happened, and real checks and balances so injured people actually receive help.
- 📉 VISP denied her claim in a nameless letter, rejected the neurologist’s TM causation, called the injury neither severe nor permanent, and has left her 2023 appeal unresolved.
- 💵 Off work since February 2021, she survived two years with no income until CPP disability ($1,600/month) while medicines alone cost $500; the family remortgaged the house.
Daniel’s direct ask for accountability and the crushing denial of promised compensation.
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Transcript¶
Dean Allison · 2:43:13
Um, we have lost our way, and this is And I'm sorry that you have had to go through what you've gone through. Um, it's important that voices like yours don't get lost.
Glen Motz · 2:43:29
And what would you like to see happen, um, as a result of this inquiry?
Shannon Holmes · 2:43:35
Transparency. We need to talk about what happened. People need to have their stories heard. And we need to have checks and balances in place to help people. There was supposed to be the VISP, and that's about where I was about to go. In January of 2023, they sent me a letter, didn't even have my name on it. They said that my injury, even though my neurologist said it's transverse myelitis, yeah, there's causation there. We believe that, you know, it's transient related to your vaccine. But we don't really see that it's transverse myelitis. It's probably your rheumatoid arthritis. And regardless, your injury is not severe or permanent. Denied. I appealed within 60 days and that was in March 2023, and I still have no resolution. So I've been off work since February 2021.
Shannon Holmes · 2:44:35
I was removed. I had long-term disability through my employer for 2 years, but then they found that I could not return to being a paramedic. I could maybe do a job, any employment, because I didn't have the healthcare backing from any professionals to be my neurologist to be like, yeah, you have transverse myelitis. And my family doctor was like, yeah, you have this and you have this and you have this. But there was nobody to cumulatively bring it together to be like, hey, everything put together means you can't work anymore. So I went without income for 2 years until I was finally approved for CPP disability. But to give you an idea of CPP disability, I make $1,600 a month. My out-of-pocket just medicine costs are $500 a month. That doesn't include physio, that doesn't include any therapy, that doesn't include anything else. But when the government basically— oxero— the government was represented by OXERO, and they said, nope, your, your injury is not severe, it's not permanent.
Shannon Holmes · 2:45:36
It broke the last bit of faith, faith that I had. The government said, we've got you, but nobody has us. There's not once— besides the people in this room, there's no one here to support us, to help us get through this, to help us navigate. I'm a well-educated, well-spoken person, and I still struggle to get I still get called a drug seeker. I still get called, oh, she's crazy. Oh, she had preexisting conditions before she got sick. So that's obviously why she's sick. It has nothing to do with the vaccine, even though I have black and white medical documents that state transverse myelitis from COVID vaccine. So if I can't even get help, how does everybody else get help?
Glen Motz · 2:46:22
I have support.
Shannon Holmes · 2:46:23
I have a husband and family who, have moved mountains. We were able to remortgage our house so that we could survive. But there's so many people that don't have support.
Speaker B · 2:46:34
What about them?
Dean Allison · 2:46:35
Jamie, thank you very much. And once again, you know, I'm reminded of you as a first responder. We thank you for the work that you do and have done, you know, and having your own community, you know, give you a hard time or turn on you as well. And that, that's, that's troubling. But at every level, compounds that as well. So thank, thank you very much for coming and sharing your story.