Robert Denesiuk: Pfizer Then Sudden Paralyzing Falls¶
Day 4 · 7:02:23 · Myriam Bohémier · Robert Denesiuk
- 💉 56-year-old with stable schizoaffective disorder took Pfizer while working part-time janitorial shifts.
- 🤕 Two weeks later feet gave out at work; next morning he could move legs only inches and needed stretcher.
- 🏥 Comox ER diagnosed Guillain-Barré; rough three-hour transfer began 6.5 months in three hospitals.
Rapid post-Pfizer paralysis diagnosed as Guillain-Barré launched half-year hospitalization.
← Lisa Watson: Walker for Life, Exemption Refused | Robert Denesiuk: Relearning to Walk, Second Shot in Hospital →
Transcript¶
Myriam Bohémier · 7:02:23
So our next witness is Robert Denesiuk. I Okay, Robert, will you take the Bible in your right hand? And did I pronounce your last name properly? Dennis Chuck. Dennis Chuck. Or Dennis Chuck. Robert, uh, Danisuk, do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? I do. I just want to introduce you to the inquiry. You're 56 years of age, um, you have a pre-existing mental illness. You have what's called schizoaffective disorder bipolar, which means that you can have both schizophrenic symptoms or bipolar symptoms or both at the same time.
Myriam Bohémier · 7:03:26
That's correct. And, um, prior to, um, what we're about to talk about, you were working half-time at what's called a RECA clubhouse. That's correct. And that's how you're working around 18 to 24 hours a week, and that's a place where people with mental illness can go and work, right?
Robert Denesiuk · 7:03:47
Yeah, it's also the hangout kind of place.
Myriam Bohémier · 7:03:49
Yeah. And you, your, your work was, um, janitorial work, was what? That's correct. Right. And then, but you, you have, you had some diabetes, but you were in good health.
Robert Denesiuk · 7:04:02
Yeah, I, I was working around 2 weeks, and then all of a sudden I was falling for no reason.
Myriam Bohémier · 7:04:09
Well, we'll get, we'll get into that in a sec. So you You get vaccinated. Yeah, with the Pfizer vaccine. And then now what you're talking about is about 2 weeks later, right?
Robert Denesiuk · 7:04:21
Yeah, I, I was working and next thing I know I was falling and I was supposed to work that day and I had to get put on a chair and they called for my mom to pick me up and I had to have 2 people hold on to me to get to the car.
Myriam Bohémier · 7:04:38
So you're at work at that time, right?
Robert Denesiuk · 7:04:41
I, I didn't work because I was falling on the floor, right?
Myriam Bohémier · 7:04:45
But I mean, but you're at, you're at the, the courthouse. And, um, so are, are you just, are you walking? Are you standing? When is it that you, when you first fall?
Robert Denesiuk · 7:04:57
I was just walking and I just, my feet would just give out. Like, it was just, I would be falling to Florida with no understanding why. Okay.
Myriam Bohémier · 7:05:10
And then so you're taken to the hospital. They put— do you go with your mom or do you go in an ambulance?
Robert Denesiuk · 7:05:17
Um, well, actually, the, the first thing we did was we took me to my apartment. I was on the recliner couch, but the— I spent the night The next day I was paralyzed and I couldn't get off the couch, and I had to call my mom to come, and then we called the ambulance and they had to put me on a stretcher to the hospital. Right. So it did.
Myriam Bohémier · 7:05:47
So you, you fall asleep in the— it's a reclining chair, right? Like a La-Z-Boy type thing?
Robert Denesiuk · 7:05:52
Yeah, it's the only thing I could get onto at the time.
Myriam Bohémier · 7:05:56
Yeah, right. So you fall asleep and you sleep the night, but in the morning you, you're basically paralyzed. You, you can't move your legs, right?
Robert Denesiuk · 7:06:06
Yeah, I couldn't move my right leg more than 3 inches and my left 6 inches. And, uh, uh, end up in emergency at the Comox Valley Regional Hospital.
Myriam Bohémier · 7:06:17
I'm just gonna slow you down again. So how, how are you reacting to inside? Like, how are you scared? Are you—.
Robert Denesiuk · 7:06:26
I didn't know what to think. Like, it was like all of a sudden, like, um, uh, no one ever told me anything about the, the, um, dangers of the vaccine. And, uh, I didn't understand why it was— what was going on at all. And it was actually no one knew at the time and went to the emergency and the emergency doctor had to phone Victoria to the neurologist and they diagnosed me with Guillain-Barré syndrome, And I was in the hospital for a while, and then they were trying to get a bed at Royal Jubilee Hospital in Victoria, first bed I had.
Robert Denesiuk · 7:07:33
And I remember the ambulance ride, it was no shocks on them.
Myriam Bohémier · 7:07:43
Oh really?
Robert Denesiuk · 7:07:43
Yeah, so I felt every bump on the Lake of the Torrey. And, uh, um, and, uh, uh, I, I, uh, they were— they had like a safety pin and they had like an oscilloscope and they were doing, uh, um I'm not sure what they were doing, but they were trying to get, uh, um, um, um, see with movement. They were telling me to move my legs. I couldn't move them anymore.
Myriam Bohémier · 7:08:20
And I just back up. So you're, you're taken from Comox to Victoria?
Robert Denesiuk · 7:08:25
Yeah, that's about 3-hour drive, right?
Myriam Bohémier · 7:08:27
And you actually ended up— you were in about 3 different hospitals, but you spent went about 6 and a half months in the hospital. In the hospital. And what type of an experience was that, all of a sudden having to basically live in a hospital?