B.C. man approved for financial compensation for vaccine injury, others still waiting for help
CTV
A B.C. man who suffered a rare COVID-19 vaccine injury that left him paralyzed will be getting financial support from the federal government.
A B.C. man who suffered a rare COVID-19 vaccine injury that left him paralyzed will be getting financial support from the federal government.
But others, who have also applied for compensation through the Vaccine Injury Support Program, are frustrated they still haven’t received help.
Julian Scholefield, 45, said he was active and healthy until about two weeks after receiving his second Pfizer vaccine in July 2021.
“I started to get a tingling heat sensation in my left foot and then within two hours, I was paralyzed from the waist down,” the Summerland resident said.
He spent 89 days in hospital. Doctors told the married father of two daughters that he’d developed acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADEM).
“I had an autoimmune reaction to the vaccine and that created swelling on my spinal cord which eventually cut off the sensory and motor skills to the spinal cord,” Scholefield said. “That swelling has since subsided, but I have had some significant damage to the spinal cord itself that has maybe slowly been healing.”
Since leaving hospital, he spends most of his days in a wheelchair.
