The boy with a racing heart

The following is an article first published on February 19th by Gerry O’Neill. It has been reproduced with his kind permission. Originally published in two parts, you can find his original work here.

On the 31st of January, a 10 year old Irish boy, suffered a heart injury at his school. What we can say with certainty, at this point, is that his little growing heart is now damaged. The expert opinion, at this moment in time, advises for a serious heart procedure.

Although, this will be the longest and most rigorous piece of writing I’ve attempted to undertake, to date, I doubt, at the end of it, I’ll be able to conclusively prove a vaccine caused this little boy’s troubles. Nevertheless I will ask the question because I personally believe that it cannot be ruled out and no-one in the Irish health system wants to address it.

I am not a scientist, cardiologist, a doctor, nurse or a medic of any description. So, all I can do, is tell you what happened, as told to me by the father of the heart injured boy. Any claims he makes, and he doesn’t make many, are supported with documents, letters, pictures and a video he supplied to me. I think it amounts to some evidence of maltreatment but maybe you’ll disagree.

Nevertheless, what I am a lot more certain about, though, is that you will be shocked. Shocked by the casual ineptitude and downright danger of entering our hospital system and by extension dealing with our health service. The consistent banality of each mis-step and mistake would almost fool you into a false sense of security.

Because whether this boy was vaccine injured or not, the real horror story is the brutality of the system, and I am sorry to say, the people in that system cannot continue to hide behind their apologies for its failings. Almost akin to a hostage becoming addicted to their kidnapper in a weird type of Stockholm syndrome.

I have spent hours talking to the father of this child. There are many wisps of that conversation playing over in my mind, as I start this journey, but the shining one is the gut reaction of the father on his first night in hospital with his boy. That reaction was a humbling, numbing instinct that he made the wrong decision for his child. In the dark of that night he was consumed by an overwhelming need to beg his son for forgiveness. That image, of John apologising to his son, for the decision to follow the vaccination route, is one I can’t quite shake. Or indeed, the response of his son, who instantly tried to comfort his father:

“ It’s OK Dad I know you thought you were doing the right thing….. “

As I thought about this scene, over and over, it hit me that vista could be a metaphor for the Irish health system. As the foundation stones of our health apparatus are built on the forgiveness of those consistently injured by it and the hastily swept-away memories of those unfortunate enough to be killed by it.

The reason I have become enthralled by this particular story are manifold. This isn’t a vengeful parent seeking retribution at all costs with a massive axe to grind. Rather, it is a person who trusted the science and the system but whose eyes have been forced wide-open by events. I should say from the outset that on two or three different occasions during the entirety of this boy’s journey, different medical professionals all stated that it was “ unlikely “ that this adverse event was a vaccine injury. You’ll have to make up your own minds as we move thru the articles.

Perhaps, more importantly, this is also a chronicle that contains all the big themes and players of our pandemic response. Vaccines and vaccinations, the HSE, General Practitioners, PCR testing, natural immunity and last, but by no means least, that old chestnut, of the traditional brigade – misinformation. But just who is misinforming who?

So then, we have a very specific story that feels like it contains some universal truths. I am equally mindful that there is an ancient adage that at some point in history got sliced two ways. The phrase “ God is in the detail “ also spawned another common phrasing – “ the Devil is in the detail “

And that really has been the story of this pandemic. What you find depends entirely on where and how you look. And as a few of you know I like to train my eyes into the darker places where the spotlight isn’t encouraged to shine.

The Adverse Event
Gerry O’Neill: I just wanted to start by getting a bit of background about yourself John and your family, what kind of thought process went into getting the vaccines for yourself and the kids and we’ll start from there.

John: To tell you the truth – If you remember during the peak of it here – it was when everything was in lockdown. The ridiculous things that people were doing; washing and spraying everything in their shopping bag before they got into the house and that kind of thing. That used to really get to me. I remember going into the Lidl car-park one day and seeing a crowd of people outside queueing and it just really got to me and I ended up turning around and said I’d come back when it’s quieter. At that stage there was no vaccine and I remember saying to myself if there’s a vaccine coming I’ll take two of them. So when it was available I had no hesitation in taking it. I just didn’t want to live with that oddness and fear.

GON: What would that fear have been – The fear of getting it or the fear of being ostracized as someone that didn’t get it?

John: No, the fear of getting the virus or where you could end up after getting it. Yeah, so I bought into the whole vaccine stuff. Certainly before vaccination, I started to suffer anxiety in crowded situations, after vaccination, the first time I got it, I said to myself, sure you’re vaccinated, cop on, and I never had anxiety since.

GON: Can I ask you now just a quick question as I think it might have a relevance later on – where do you typically source your information from on COVID?

John: Well, it would have been basically the mainstream media – RTE and UTV/ITV?

I should point out that John lives in the North-East of the Republic of Ireland.

GON: As a matter of interest has your opinion of those sources changed as a result of what has happened to your son?

John: Well, certainly my opinion has changed of them over the last two or three weeks?

GON: But do you feel like your son was just unlucky or do you feel like you shouldn’t have been given so much information that kind of bombarded people to get their children vaccinated.

John: They held off allowing the children under 12 getting vaccinated until recently and they should have held off on that altogether. He got COVID in early November and suffered only mild symptoms.

GON: Were you aware that natural immunity, based on all the scientific evidence presented to date, provides at least as good immunity, if not better, than any of the current vaccines?

John: No, No I wasn’t.

GON: What would you say were the determining factors in deciding to get your son vaccinated after he’d already recovered from it?

John: As I mentioned earlier, my own reason, for getting the vaccine for myself, was to overcome the new found anxiety in social situations like shopping. However, I really didn’t think deeply about getting the vaccine for my kids. My son had COVID in November, and we, myself and his older brother didn’t get COVID, we were already fully vaccinated. I attributed that to the vaccine. And ignored the warnings, I scrolled over them like Apple iTunes terms and conditions. That’s the honest answer. My son has become a statistic because I didn’t balance his risk versus benefit. Others have suggested perhaps there was some hidden underlining condition anyway. That would be good, because it gives me absolution.

GON: John this is very interesting – I suppose from my point of view you already have absolution. My own opinion is that this vaccine should never have been rolled out to kids without more exhaustive research, especially considering how very low the mortality stats and serious illness stats are for anyone under the age of 18.

I’ve just got a question on your social anxiety. Do you not ask yourself why it was you were so anxious? I mean in terms of the information you, me and everyone else were provided with. And do you feel the information was accurate given the benefit of hindsight?

John: I remember watching UTV evening news, and there was a piece about the big graveyard in Belfast, they had dug hundreds of empty graves, to be used for people who were at that moment out shopping but within weeks would be filling up the graves. They had drone aerial video footage of rows upon rows of freshly dug, empty graves.

GON: You’d agree with me, I take it, that was more fear mongering than accurate information to say the least…

John: I don’t know, did it save lives?, was it the right thing to do at the time.

For creating fear, by Jesus, it worked.

GON: OK…but I asked do you agree that the UTV piece was not accurate? Unsubstantiated fear, creates as a by-product, a highly anxious society but also an easily controlled one. So it is important that I confirm your over thoughts on the accuracy of that piece as opposed to whether the motivations for it were justified. Because I certainly agree that the tactics worked.

John: I don’t know what happened to them graves, clearly they weren’t filled within weeks. Yes, in hindsight, it was hyperbole. Now, ask yourself, was it right to err on one side or the other ?

The truth is probably in the middle.

The part that China played, the truth will never be known. Was it typical Chinese cheating and lying, or something bigger.

GON: You or I don’t need to ask ourselves what the motivation to it was . I just want to point out that the information wasn’t accurate even on what was known then. Other people can form their own opinions on whether it was right or wrong to do so. Lying or exaggerating the truth is a slippery slope once pillars of our civic society start shuffling down that road. Because if these same people unearth that an earlier exaggeration is not true – the incentive will be greater to cover up what they did or said previously with further half-truths and lies. And before you know it you live in a society where no-one trusts anything and extreme view on both sides gather momentum.

John: The UTV piece, again I don’t know what happened to them graves in the weeks following. I’m sure the workers could give a factual, numerical answer.

I never seen a follow-up piece. Hyperbole, yes

GON: OK so moving onto the day of vaccination – I can empathize with your family situation in that the vaccination status of most of my family are jabbed bar myself. I suppose take me into the details surrounding the vaccination date of your son and and how that day went. Did he have an immediate reaction?

John: No, absolutely no immediate reaction. I did every part of the process from booking it and bringing him there to holding his hand even.

GON: How long before this adverse event happened to your son and what exactly did happen?

John: It was just over two weeks after the vaccination. So, he was lucid during what happened and he was able to tell people what he was feeling. He was playing football and the football finished and he was chatting with his friends. He started complaining that he was having difficulty to breath and then he was getting extreme tightness in his chest. He went into a room actually and lay across a desk. A teacher passing saw him and contacted his own teacher and that person contacted the nurse. The nurse happened to be there, and she said she tried to take his heart rate but she couldn’t.

GON: She couldn’t?

John: Yeah, so she called the ambulance straight away. Luckily, The ambulance was there within a few minutes. They hooked him up to the ECG and they said in all of their years they had never seen anything like it. They had to record it as they didn’t think the consultants in the hospital would believe it. Because it was so, so, extreme and they considered it life threatening. His heart rate was at over 220 beats per minute.

GON: So, it was the paramedics on the scene that said that?

John: Yes.

GON: So you get contacted and you’re obviously freaking out about your son so what happens when you get to the scene?

John: One of the rules with an ambulance and a child is that an adult has to be there. So they rang me and I make my way up to the school. I was probably driving like I robbed a bank. When I arrived , about 30 minutes after the event, at that stage, they had recovered him. They told me that they had been considering stopping and restarting his heart with a defibrillator.

GON: So they considered using a defibrillator?

John: Yeah, but they wanted to try everything else first. The medical report mentions the procedure they did was Valsalva and that helped. When I arrived he was asleep. The paramedics said the event would take so much out of him and not to expect anything from him – do you know what I mean?

Note: The Valsalva manoeuvre is a breathing method that may slow your heart when it’s beating too fast. To do it, you breathe out strongly through your mouth while holding your nose tightly closed. This creates a forceful strain that can trigger your heart to react and go back into normal rhythm.

GON: Was he asleep as a result of whatever drugs or medication they gave him?

John: No, he was naturally asleep because what they said was that after the severe episode he just experienced that it was like running a marathon.

GON: What was the nurse and paramedics gut reaction, do you think, to what was happening to him. Did they communicate that to you?

John: They communicated that this was very, very serious.

GON: What I mean is they didn’t indicate that this was a panic attack or something of that nature. That it’s immediately obvious to everyone that this is a very, very serious and life-threatening situation.

John: Yes, but now SVT is not something that is unknown. But it’s not known to be fatal but can make you feel very uncomfortable but this was on a different level.

GON: What is SVT?

John: Oh, that is what they eventually diagnosed him with. Supraventricular tachycardia


Now, at this point, we need to jump off the JRE experience for a moment and engage the nimble fingered Jamie in a little research, so to speak. We must try to explain and define a few things. The following is the Mayo Clinic’s definition of SVT so that we give an accurate portrayal of what the condition relates to specifically.

Supraventricular tachycardia (SVT) is as an abnormally fast or erratic heartbeat that affects the heart’s upper chambers. An abnormal heartbeat is called an arrhythmia. SVT is also called paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia.

Supraventricular tachycardia is generally not life-threatening unless you have heart damage or other heart problems. However, in extreme cases, an episode of SVT may cause unconsciousness or cardiac arrest.

Now, the study and scientific examination of adverse events in relation to COVID vaccines is an ongoing and evolving process. John’s son received the Pfizer vaccine so we will follow that specific route. The question we have to ask is a simple one:

Is SVT a known Pfizer vaccine side effect?
The answer to that question seems to be not only yes but actually if you combine all the different types of tachycardia it seems to be the most prominent heart-related side-effect of all vaccines and in particular the Pfizer vaccine. I am basing this statement from a current and ongoing study first reported on in the International Journal for Medicine in July 2021 entitled:

Cardiovascular Adverse Events Reported from COVID-19 Vaccines: A Study Based on the WHO Database

Click here for the full study

One thing to note here is that to find any study related specifically to cardiovascular events and covid vaccines is very difficult. This quoted study is an examination of reported adverse events in VigiBase. VigiBase is a global pharmacovigilance database maintained by World Health Organization. The VigiBase was established in 1968 and consisted of over 20 million reports of adverse events reported by the WHO program’s member countries for International Drug Monitoring. It also is utilized for adverse covid vaccine event reporting.

The examination of this data was done by a collective of 8 Indian doctors working mainly out of the Department of Pharmacology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India. This study does not have a record of adverse events pertaining to persons under the age of 12 as no health authority in the world was advancing vaccines for that age cohort at the time this initial examination of data was carried out.

With all that said, what we can deduce from their report and the below extract, is that 16.41% of the adverse covid vaccine reactions observed relate to tachycardia. It is the NUMBER 1 recorded common adverse reaction to the heart.

For the cardiovascular system, 4863 adverse events (AEs) were reported from BNT162b2 Pfizer, 1222 AstraZeneca, Moderna, and other COVID-19 vaccines. Common adverse events observed with vaccines under study were tachycardia (16.41%), flushing (12.17%), hypertension (5.82%), hypotension (3.60%) and peripheral coldness (2.41%). Based on disproportionality analysis (IC025 values), acute myocardial infarction, cardiac arrest, and circulatory collapse were linked to the vaccines in the age group >75 years. Hypertension, severe hypertension, supraventricular tachycardia, sinus tachycardia, and palpitations were associated across all age groups and either gender. Amongst the investigations, abnormal ECG findings raised C-reactive protein, elevated D dimer, and troponin were reported in specific age groups or gender or all subjects.

Now, if we zone in on the particulars of SVT and compare it to the more commonly publicized heart related side-effect of myocarditis we find something quite shocking. SVT is about 4 times more prevalent a vaccine side-effect than Myocarditis. OK, but why did I use the word “shocking” ?

Neither tachycardia, nor John’s son’s particular heart problem, Supraventricular tachycardia are listed by the HSE as a side effect of the Pfizer vaccine.

Currently, the only two heart related side-effects mentioned by the HSE are myocarditis and pericarditis. So, would it now make more sense as to why 3 different medical professionals would refuse to recognise John’s son’s injury as a vaccine side-effect?

Why is one of the most commonly reported side-effects of the Pfizer vaccine in this study not marked for notice by our public health officials to our public?

Link to HSE vaccine side effects click here

If we look across the water to the UK and check what adverse vaccine events they are recording for the Pfizer vaccine it seems to be a much more comprehensive set of conditions than anything I have seen published in Ireland and critically they are recording episodes of all type of Tachycardia including Supra ventricular tachycardia. The numbers here tally with the findings of the WHO study mentioned earlier.

Click here for the February 10th 2022 UK Gov report: Covid-19 Pfizer vaccine analysis Report

Also the UK health authorities at least admit – similar to the Swedish health authorities that the safety and efficacy of the Pfizer vaccines for the under 12 population has not yet been established.

Now, quite often with pieces of data like this the more conspiracy minded jump in with both feet. My only interjection would be that when it comes to the HSE rule out incompetence before you go rushing into any conspiracies. Or have our scientific brains trust categorically been able to rule out SVT as a potential vaccine side-effect without producing any scientific study on the matter?

And when you think about it – If Ireland are reporting its figures into this WHO database for adverse reactions – we are submitting an incomplete and false data picture.

Anyway, let’s allow Jamie to rest his fingers again and get back to the interview.


GON: So, the paramedics are kind of pointing to this SVT at the scene?

John: Yes, or heart arrhythmia with his heart rate being all over the place.

GON: Now, just to be clear – Your son has never had heart issues or any previous occurrence of this arrhythmia before has he?

John: No. Or any of the family.

GON: OK. What was the first thing that goes through your mind when you arrive at the scene as to the cause?

John: To tell you the truth I was numb. Obviously I was quite aware of how soon it was after the vaccination. I said that there to them and I was aware there were reported heart issues with the vaccines.

GON: Especially in boys.

John: Yes, especially in boys.

GON: Sorry I want to go into a little detail here. When you voiced that concern out loud what was the kind of reaction? Did you get a reaction from the nurse or the paramedics?

John: The paramedics noted what I said but you know they aren’t going to have a big discussion about it. As regards the HSE website what they say to watch out for and stuff. When you find the medical journals which list all of the different heart side-effects of the vaccine – This is one of them. And this is more prevalent than the one the HSE has on their website. The HSE just talks about Myocarditis which is an inflammation of the heart. That is only one of the heart side effects.

GON: Ok so what happened then?

John: We just headed off to the hospital very soon after I got there.

A father, two paramedics and a heart-injured boy rushing to a hospital with no paediatric cardiologist…….

GON: How much additional time, do you think, it would have taken for the ambulance to have gone to Crumlin Children’s Hospital where there are paediatric cardiologists as opposed to going to the hospital that you and your son went to?

John: Well we were on the M1 already heading south – so at that time of the day ( non-peak) 30-35 minutes at most.

GON: Ok, so not far at all. So, just to confirm something. Were you riding in the back of the ambulance or driving behind?

John: I was in the ambulance with my son. It must be a protocol for children as I asked about driving my car to follow directly behind so as not to be stranded at the hospital but I left it at the school.

GON: OK. Was there anything noteworthy about the journey or what were your feelings. Was your son still asleep?

John: He woke up after awhile and I was having a video call with my wife. So I let him talk to her for a few moments and to sort of calm her down about the situation too.

GON: What was the reaction of the paramedics during this journey. Was there much chat?

John: Like he was very calm and professional about the whole thing. Explaining how critical is was – If they hadn’t been able to recover him – they would have been going with blue lights and sirens.

GON: I think you said earlier the Valsalva procedure seems to have stabilized the situation?

John: Yes, but if that hadn’t worked the defibrillator was the next option. They had already rang ahead and had the resuscitation team warned and ready we were on our way.

GON: I suppose I have been thinking about this part of your story since our first conversation and to my mind it seems like a very professional response but at the same time it’s a massive systems error or blind spot. All good people and good responses on the scene yet the paramedics and the resuscitation teams both know that there is no paediatric cardiologist in the hospital you are going to?

John: Yeah, I know – but I wonder what the scenario would have been if he hadn’t been recovered at the scene would there have been a different protocol in place and maybe we would have gone to Crumlin?

GON: That’s a good point and we don’t know the answer but I suppose from my point of view the paramedics have done an emergency recovery and have no way of knowing whether the episode will re-trigger within an 1 hour, a day or a week. So, the determination would be that this child needs to go to a hospital and see a cardiologist very, very quickly.

John: The other point I should make and maybe we’ll get to is that I have Private Health Insurance.

GON: Before we get to that let’s get into the nitty gritty of what happened on arrival to the hospital and entry into the system.

John: When we arrive the resuscitation team come out and the paramedics explain to them what they did with the Valsalva procedure and they say well done on that. We continue then with a trolley to the paediatrics A&E and they hooked him up to a monitor. They advised me that he would be admitted to a bed but because it was now after 3:00pm he wouldn’t see the cardiologist until the next day.

GON: So they did say you would see a cardiologist. Who said that to you?

John: Yes, staff in the A&E department.

GON: OK, specifically who – a doctor or a nurse? – Can you remember?

John: To be honest, I am not sure whether it was a doctor or a nurse – they all seem to wear the same scrub uniforms these days but it was member of the A&E staff definitely.

GON: And 100% said you would a cardiologist the following day?

John: Yes they did.

GON: That must be shocking for you to hear, that it would be the following day?

John: Well, Yes. Everything up to that point was dealt with like it was an emergency from paramedics to the resuscitation team on arrival. Then when we went into A&E everything slowed down. But what can I do in that scenario?

GON: There is nothing you can do. I am not questioning your actions I just want to get an idea of what you felt and capture the details?

John: My despair didn’t kick in fully until the following day. It was only then that I was told that they didn’t in fact have a cardiologist for my son in the hospital?

GON: And to be specific and to step back a little. Your mindset on hearing the news that it would be the following day before your son was seen by a cardiologist was:

“ Right we just need to get through tonight until we see the cardiologist?”

And to agree to accept the situation and grin and bear it till the morning.

John: Yeah, Yes.

GON: OK now lets step through the first night?

John: Well, when we got a bed on the ward my son fell asleep. I did ask for a more private room as I have the insurance. But they said first of all they didn’t have one and secondly, at any rate, they wanted him close to the nurses station to keep an eye on him. If he was in a private room he wouldn’t be as easy to see.

GON: Hmmmm. I think they should’ve just quit at part one of that answer. So much for private insurance.

John: There was a poor child in agony on the ward, I felt so sorry for him, he was intubated or something it was agonizing for the poor fella. It was just a very a stressful and upsetting night for everyone on the ward and their families.

GON: Did your son have any issues during that night or the subsequent one?

John: Well that’s the thing. He was hooked up to a heart monitor and the alarm was set to 60. The alarm went off a number of times during the night.

GON: Now, just to be clear the alarm is set at 60 as a low threshold warning to give notice to staff. It’s not necessarily a sign of danger but something to keep an eye. And just to be accurate your son’s heart rate was at 227 during the morning’s incident. So actually his heart rate was at nearly 4 times the low threshold of earlier in the day.

John: Well, actually it got up to a high of 258 or something.

GON: So, now you are in a different situation and we went through all the SVT stuff earlier?

John: This worry was to do with Bradycardia – it’s another one of the known side effects from these vaccines.

GON: Now, we should clarify was this mentioned to you in the hospital or recorded on a report similar to where they identified SVT as possible cause at the scene or is this something you researched yourself?

John: No, I looked this up myself but everything I was seeing I sent to my wife. When she got everything I sent her, regarding his lower heart rate, she forwarded it to her friend who is a cardiologist. The lower heart-rate even if Bradycardia was not as worrisome. But that the earlier ECG is something to be really, really worried about.

GON: My line of questioning here is more to do with the system. So, the first time the alarm goes off – what happens?

John: They just come in and reset. Turn-off and turn on kind of thing.

GON: Did they record the low rate on a chart ?

John: So, they did record some of the low numbers but the real lows, a few times the heart rate dipped into the 40s and it wasn’t recorded on my son’s chart. When I raised the issue with the nurse on duty she said she would raise my concerns about the heart-rate with the on-call doctor.

GON: At this time did you get the sense that they weren’t accurately recording the heart-rate on his chart?

John: No, I didn’t know that until later but I was worried enough at that stage that I began recording it on my phone.

GON: You were astute to do that. Again, my reason for asking these questions, is to focus on the systemic nature of it. Even though, your son may not have been in danger from this lower heart-rate – my contention would be that if you treat 100 patients in a row as sloppily as this – something bad is going to happen to 4 or 5 through sheer carelessness. The fact is they haven’t recorded how low your son’s heart-beat got down to and the on-call doctor is not going to have access to the absolute most accurate information when she or he arrives.


Let’s step off here for a few moments and digest a few things. I would like to point out that John also supplied a picture of his son’s chart and it tallies with what he is saying above. There is no heart rate in the 40s recorded on the chart. I have decided against publishing that picture for a number of reasons. The first and probably most important reason is that it identifies the name of the hospital and second there is other information on the chart system that this hospital uses that may have a legal issue around publishing. But I must stress John did provide the evidence and it was my decision not to publish it.

Another point, I want to raise at this juncture is John’s status as a holder of private medical insurance. It triggered a separate question in my mind. So, after our conversation I rang VHI to find out how they would treat a claim of someone that was vaccine-injured.

Are the COVID-19 vaccine-injured covered under existing private health insurance policies?

After talking with two different but very helpful people on the phone they couldn’t give me a definitive answer. Irish Health insurance companies seem to be treating the vaccine injury situation as if it is a problem that doesn’t exist or will never exist. They did promise to get a more senior person to respond in detail to my question but at the time of writing that has yet to happen.

However, I can’t help but get the nagging sense that no-one, hospital or health insurance, wants to treat pre-teen heart injury cases as a vaccine injury. I mentioned in Part 1 that a number of medical professionals used the words “unlikely” and “ highly unlikely” in relation to the likelihood of this being a vaccine injury. My one hour phone conversation ( 15 minutes on-hold) with VHI gave me the same feeling. This unspoken idea that vaccine injuries are almost a myth.

John’s words in response to what doctors and medical people have said to him is:

“ it’s like they are singing from a hymn sheet when I even mention it “

I got this same very sense when speaking to the VHI. Happy to talk about the effects of heart problems that are covered under their policies but when I raised the point about if the effects of a pre-teen heart condition turn out to be long-term and are indeed eventually linked back to a vaccine cause – I got a sense of nervousness and no definitive answer. Now, to be fair maybe I will in a few days.

Consider this for a moment, though, if we have a situation where the hospital system actively discourage a diagnosis of vaccine-injury, and the insurance companies offer no clarity as to whether COVID vaccine injuries are specifically covered under existing policies, then how can we ever hope to accurately record the injuries?


GON: So, eventually, your son did see a paediatric consultant but not a paediatric cardiologist, at some point on the second day. Did he ask about vaccination status?

John: Well, I raised it with him. I told him. I said it’s within two weeks of vaccination.

GON: What was his response?

John: Unlikely, but we can never rule anything out completely.

GON: A bit like aliens. So that’s it – he just goes on with his ward rounds. I guess he’s not a cardiologist is the only thing you’d say there.

John: Yeah. Paediatric as opposed to cardiologist. In the hospital they arranged for bloods, X-ray and pee. You can see in the discharge letter that they mention Troponin an indication of a heart episode.

Note: When heart muscles become damaged, troponin is sent into the bloodstream. As heart damage increases, greater amounts of troponin are released in the blood.

Discharge Letter from the hospital

One thing I note from the letter is, my old favourite, use of language. In particular the last paragraph.

“ Off note, he has a history of COVID 19 in November and he received the Pfizer vaccine less than two weeks ago….”

To me, by mentioning the earlier November COVID sickness first and in the same breath as the vaccination – it subliminally introduces the idea that child’s very mild COVID symptoms 3 months earlier might equally, be as likely, a cause as the vaccine. Or maybe I’m just a cantankerous old cynic. Anyway on we go.

GON: So, basically after two days and nights in hospital with your son you never see a cardiologist and are given a discharge letter for use to see one in Crumlin. A hospital that the ambulance could have easily brought you to in the first place. At least theoretically. What happened in between meeting cardiologist and receiving a discharge letter.

John: Yes, it was nearly a day into this ordeal that a nurse told me that I wouldn’t be seeing a cardiologist there as they didn’t have a paediatric one. And that the adult cardiologist would not look at children because it’s a different thing. She said he would have to get an echo cardiogram done and that they could only do that in Crumlin Children’s hospital.

GON: That’s kind of incredible.

John: That’s when I started to say: Why am I here in the first place?

So, that’s when I started to get exacerbated. Now, I don’t get angry or I don’t shout. I am not that type of person. If you don’t keep a calm head you’re not going to be treated well.

GON: At the same time Your kid is your kid. You’d be within your rights to let them know you’re upset.

John: You still have to keep your manners and so I know that. I was told my son would be discharged the following day with a letter and I’d go to Crumlin.

GON: As in you’d go to Crumlin the next day?

John: No, she said she didn’t know when. She told me that they’re very busy (Crumlin). She said it could be weeks or it could be months.

GON: Months! – I mean Jesus Christ. It’s so impersonal and unapologetic.

John: Yeah, and it was the same kind of thing with the doctor. I felt she said “ months” almost to antagonize me. I just turned around and walked away. We were discharged the following day with just that letter I sent you. They gave Crumlin my details and they were supposed to contact me. They didn’t ring but actually it was the nurse from the school, who rang me for updates through-out the time we were in hospital, who made contact with Crumlin on my behalf and rang them up and got us an appointment for 10 days later.


And that, as they say, was that for John’s son and his first real experience with the glory of the Irish health system.

Oh, wait a second, there is one more thing……

Something I haven’t mentioned so far. Since, this episode, in late January and early February, John has made a number of attempts to make a GP appointment for his son. It has been difficult given the restrictions and guidelines in place around GP practices at the moment. He has number of questions, signed letters and other stuff around potentially getting a second opinion. He also maybe has a question. Or maybe it’s more me than him.

All health advice points to the fact the heart complaint in question, and the heart procedure being advanced to alleviate it, are not related to John’s son’s vaccination. Now, John’s son had his heart injury 2 weeks after his 1st dose of the Pfizer vaccine. The HSE keep bombarding him with text messages regarding missed appointments for the 2nd shot of the Pfizer vaccine. He received his final reminder on February 21st.

What would you do in John’s situation?

And more pertinently will a medical doctor in this country advise him in writing that he should go ahead and take the 2nd jab?

I mean he doesn’t have a vaccine injury right?

 

If you enjoyed this article you can find other work by Gerry O’Neill here.