{"id":237239,"date":"2023-06-12T12:00:50","date_gmt":"2023-06-12T11:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=237239"},"modified":"2023-06-12T04:24:48","modified_gmt":"2023-06-12T03:24:48","slug":"were-the-dirty-little-secret-nobody-wants-to-talk-about-says-man-injured-by-covid-vaccine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2023\/06\/were-the-dirty-little-secret-nobody-wants-to-talk-about-says-man-injured-by-covid-vaccine\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018We\u2019re the Dirty Little Secret Nobody Wants to Talk About,\u2019 Says Man Injured by COVID Vaccine"},"content":{"rendered":"

Injured by the COVID19 vaccine–that his employer forced him to get–Stephen Wenger is now unable to work full-time and faces more than $70,000 in medical bills: exclusive interview.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

7 Jun 2023 – <\/em>Stephen \u201cSteve\u201d Wenger, a longtime construction project manager in the telecommunications industry and former volunteer firefighter who was in excellent health, was \u201cdead set\u201d against receiving the COVID-19 vaccine.<\/p>\n

But when faced with an ultimatum from his employer \u2014 get the vaccine or lose his job \u2014 Wenger reluctantly got vaccinated<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Within days, he found himself unable to stand up or move around. He crawled on his \u201chands and knees\u201d into a hospital emergency room, he said.<\/p>\n

Wenger ended up spending more than three months in the hospital, paralyzed from the waist down. He was diagnosed with chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy<\/a> (CIDP), \u201ca neurological disorder that involves progressive weakness and reduced senses in the arms and legs\u201d according to the National Institutes of Health.<\/p>\n

Wenger, now 57, shared his story with The Defender<\/a>, including his negative experience with the federal government\u2019s Countermeasures Injury Compensation Program (CICP). He provided medical documentation to The Defender to corroborate his story.<\/p>\n

\u2018It was either get vaccinated, or you can\u2019t come to work\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI was absolutely dead set against getting the vaccine,\u201d Wenger told The Defender. \u201cI swore I wouldn\u2019t get it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wenger was working on a project on the Navajo reservation in the desert Southwest when COVID-19<\/a> hit. \u201cThe Navajo people got really hit hard with COVID,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I was working with these guys on a daily basis.\u201d<\/p>\n

His employer didn\u2019t adopt an official mandate policy, but Wenger was nevertheless given an ultimatum.<\/p>\n

Wenger said:<\/p>\n

\u201cFinally, one day, the regional director came to me and asked me if I was vaccinated, and I said \u2018no.\u2019 They said, \u2018We\u2019re not going to tell you you have to get vaccinated, but if you\u2019re not vaccinated, you can\u2019t come up here and work with our employees.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, it was either get vaccinated or you can\u2019t come to work.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

On May 18, 2021, Wenger visited a local pharmacy and received his one and only dose of the Johnson & Johnson (Janssen) COVID-19 vaccine.<\/p>\n

\u201cI distinctly remember sitting there with the guy giving me the vaccine, and I said to him, \u2018I hope I don\u2019t regret this someday.\u2019 I\u2019ll never forget that,\u201d Wenger said. \u201cWhen I said that, I certainly didn\u2019t think I was going to regret it.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, within days, he experienced a reaction to the shot.<\/p>\n

\u201cSeven days later, I started having issues walking,\u201d Wenger said. \u201c[My wife and I] were in Sedona [Arizona] \u2026 and we were at the bottom of this really steep hill, and we had to walk up this hill, and I remember I felt kind of tired and run-down that day \u2026 I felt like I was climbing Mount Everest. My legs felt like they were in cement.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wenger didn\u2019t immediately make the connection to his recent vaccination.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s one of those things where you really don\u2019t put two and two together,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s just kind of like, okay, maybe I\u2019m just tired or having a bad day. So, I just blew it off.\u201d<\/p>\n

But later that evening, when he went out to dinner, his symptoms grew worse.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sitting in the restaurant, in a booth, and I had to get up and use the restroom,\u201d he said. \u201cI stood up and I did a 90-degree pivot and just lost my balance and literally almost fell on this other couple\u2019s dinner, on this other couple\u2019s table.\u201d<\/p>\n

Within days, back at work on the Navajo reservation, Wenger\u2019s legs gave out.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was lying there sprawled out on the concrete,\u201d Wenger recalled. \u201cI got home, was having issues walking again, falling, losing my balance.\u201d<\/p>\n

At home, his daughter, a registered nurse, encouraged him to go to the hospital.<\/p>\n

\u201cI finally went to the ER,\u201d Wenger said. \u201cMy wife literally pulled up in front of the door. I rolled out of the door, and I crawled on my hands and knees into the ER.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wenger told The Defender that just prior to this sequence of events, he had been researching some of the symptoms he was experiencing, and thought maybe they had something to do with Guillain-Barr\u00e9 syndrome<\/a>, a condition where the body\u2019s own immune system attacks the body\u2019s nerves.<\/p>\n

In the ER, healthcare providers administered a lower lumbar puncture, after determining he had no reflex response. The results of that examination led to his hospitalization \u201cright there on the spot,\u201d and ultimately, his CIDP diagnosis.<\/p>\n

It was \u2018a living hell\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

The next three months were \u201ca living hell,\u201d Wenger said, as his condition worsened.<\/p>\n

He said:<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I went in, initially I was having problems walking, but my hands and my arms still worked. That numbness or that loss of use was creeping up. And eventually, all of a sudden, I couldn\u2019t use my right arm. And then, my left arm was just barely functional.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It reached a point where he couldn\u2019t even pick up a fork, he said. \u201cThey have these foam pads that they put on the silverware so that if you can\u2019t grip \u2026 you\u2019d have a bigger surface to grab,\u201d Wenger said. \u201cWell, my hands were so weak that my fingers couldn\u2019t even pick it up. The weight of a fork was too much for me to pick up.\u201d<\/p>\n

By that time, he was essentially a quadriplegic, he said. \u201cThe whole time I was at Mayo Clinic, the only way I could get in and out of bed was [with] overhead lifts. They would put me into a sling, and they would lift me out of bed, set me down in a wheelchair.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wenger said he remained in this condition for approximately two months. \u201cThe one thing that I could still do was urinate in the urinal bottle. And it got to the point where, finally, I was in bed one night and I hit the call button. I just said, \u2018I can\u2019t do it anymore.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

At that point, he said, he was 100% dependent on other people for everything. \u201cYou basically surrender all your dignity, everything. I mean, there\u2019s nothing left.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018I set goals for myself\u2019 in order to recover<\/strong><\/p>\n

Wenger\u2019s recovery hasn\u2019t been easy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know if I had to do it again, I don\u2019t know if I could do it again,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen I got out of the hospital, I was in a wheelchair. I was still \u2026 as close to a quadriplegic as you could get without actually being there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Doctors told him it could be nine months to a year before he got back on his feet. \u201cThat just was not an acceptable solution to me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Wenger began going to the gym, where he placed himself on a rigorous workout regime, five days a week for three to four hours per day, \u201cworking my legs, working my core, trying to get my core strength back, working my arms, working my hips and my glutes.\u201d<\/p>\n

The intense exercise regimen soon began to pay off. \u201cIt progressed, and eventually it got to the point where I had some use in my legs, and then I was able to pull myself up and hold myself up.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI pushed myself to the absolute limits every single day,\u201d Wenger said, \u201cand when I would come home at the end of that workout \u2026 I would land in the recliner, and that was where I stayed for the day until I went to bed that night. And I would get up and I would do it again \u2026 every day for at least six or seven months.\u201d<\/p>\n

To recover, he said, \u201cI set goals for myself\u201d \u2014 stand by Halloween, walk with a walker by Thanksgiving, walk with a cane by Christmas \u2014 and came close to fulfilling that timeline.<\/p>\n

The cane took a little longer because it wasn\u2019t so much a strength issue,\u201d Wenger said. \u201cIt was a balance issue. My balance was so shot at that time. But by the end of January, I was able to walk with a cane just around the house.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today, he still has no feeling from the knees down, his fingertips are still numb and he has issues with dexterity. Nevertheless, he has returned to work on a part-time basis.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m unable to do my original job,\u201d he said. \u201cSo, I\u2019m on Social Security disability right now, but I work part-time at a hardware store.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite his continued improvement, Wenger said he doesn\u2019t expect a full recovery.<\/p>\n

He said:<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I walk a lot, my feet still really hurt. It feels like I\u2019m standing on glass, on hot, jagged rocks. I think that\u2019s probably permanent damage. It\u2019s been almost two years since this happened, so if the nerves haven\u2019t repaired themselves by now, I don\u2019t think they\u2019re going to.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Nevertheless, Wenger maintains an optimistic outlook about his recovery.<\/p>\n

\u201cI tell people, if this is as good as I get, I can deal with that,\u201d he said. \u201cI can handle it. I can do everything I want to do. The only thing I really can\u2019t do \u2014 my wife and I like to hike. We live in Arizona and there\u2019s a lot of cactuses, and the idea of going out and hiking sounds great, but if I stumble \u2026 the last place I want to land is on a cactus.\u201d<\/p>\n

He still gets intravenous immunoglobulin<\/a> therapy about every 14 days. \u201cIt\u2019s fun and games for nobody. This takes probably a little over three hours.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wenger also credited a chemotherapy drug with significantly aiding his recovery.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery six months, I still get a chemo drug,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat actually turned my CIDP around was rituximab. It ultimately stopped my decline and turned me around and got me on the recovery side of this \u2026 that\u2019s what keeps me healthy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Insurance is \u2026 an absolute nightmare\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

Though rituximab has helped Wenger improve, issues with insurance companies have caused delays in treatment \u2014 placing his health and recovery at risk.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe last dose [of rituximab] I had was in December,\u201d Wenger said, \u201cand it actually came two months late because of some insurance issues. Insurance is a nightmare, an absolute nightmare.\u201d<\/p>\n

During that two-month period, Wenger developed a cold or the flu, which triggered his CIDP and caused him to relapse.<\/p>\n

\u201cCIDP is no joke,\u201d Wenger continued. \u201cIt\u2019s the gift that keeps on giving. Once you\u2019ve got it, you\u2019ve got it. You don\u2019t get rid of it. It\u2019s always there. It can come back at any time.\u201d<\/p>\n

He will likely continue intravenous immunoglobulin therapy for the rest of his life and will continue taking rituximab indefinitely.<\/p>\n

\u201cSeeing how quickly I relapsed in December, I think they\u2019ll keep me on that for a while at least,\u201d he said. \u201cSo that\u2019s my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wenger\u2019s insurance payments increased from $200 to $850 per month and his deductible more than doubled, from $6,000 to $13,000 \u2014 an amount that was then reset when his previous employer changed insurance carriers.<\/p>\n

His medical expenses reached $70,000. In conjunction with a sharp drop in income, from six figures down to $27,000 on disability insurance, Wenger estimated his \u201creal cash financial loss\u201d as ranging between $250,000 and $300,000.<\/p>\n

Once he qualified for disability insurance, he didn\u2019t receive his first check for seven months, during which time he went without an income.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve always had a six-month safety net in savings in case of emergency,\u201d Wenger said. \u201cAnd we burned through all of that, trying to keep the mortgage paid. I had to sell my car, my truck, because we couldn\u2019t afford that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fortunately for Wenger, his family has been supportive throughout his ordeal \u2014 support that has included financial assistance.<\/p>\n

\u201cLuckily, my dad is in a position where he can help us,\u201d Wenger said. And his sister started a GoFundMe that raised $20,000.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve never had to beg for money before and I didn\u2019t like the idea of doing it,\u201d Wenger said. \u201cAnd my God, the people that donated to it \u2014 there were people donating that I didn\u2019t even know \u2026 and they were donating $100, they were donating $500. It was unbelievable. It was just unreal. I can\u2019t thank those people enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

His family has done more than provide financial support. \u201cYou don\u2019t get through something like this without your family standing behind you,\u201d describing how his family members would fly from Wisconsin to Arizona just to surprise him \u2014 as did a fellow volunteer firefighter from back home.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you go through a situation like this, you find out who your friends are, and you find out who your real friends are,\u201d Wenger said. \u201cI had friends of mine from high school, two of them, that came out and visited me. One of them lives in Ohio and he flew out to visit me. I haven\u2019t seen the guy in 30 years, and he flew out to visit me in the hospital. That just makes me weepy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Government vaccine injury program \u2018insulting\u2019 to victims<\/strong><\/p>\n

Wenger filed a CICP claim that is still pending.<\/p>\n

\u201cI describe the CICP as a government agency that\u2019s put in place to deny people benefits because that\u2019s what they do best,\u201d Wenger said.<\/p>\n

He described the labyrinthine process for submitting a CICP claim and \u201cproving\u201d his vaccine injury:<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir burden of proof is virtually unattainable. The fact that I\u2019m 57 years old, have never had any medical problems and the fact that all my problems began seven days after I got the vaccine, well, that\u2019s not good enough, \u2018that\u2019s not proof that the vaccine caused your injury, that\u2019s purely coincidental.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I get documentation from the doctors that state my condition was caused by the vaccine, that\u2019s not good enough. I have to prove beyond a doubt that my injury was caused by the vaccine. Well, as a normal person, as a layman, how do I do that? I\u2019m not a doctor. How do I prove 100% beyond a doubt that my injury was caused by the vaccine? I can\u2019t.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Wenger said his \u201cclaim has been sitting with CICP now\u201d since November 2021, adding that he \u201cspent the next four or five months getting my medical records over to them.\u201d It was only in June 2022 that CICP acknowledged receipt of his records and began reviewing his case.<\/p>\n

A year later, \u201cI still have nothing,\u201d Wenger said, remarking on the fact that only recently, CICP approved its first three COVID-19 vaccine injury claims<\/a> \u2014 at a total of $4,500.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s not a settlement, that\u2019s not even a settlement offer,\u201d Wenger remarked. \u201cThat\u2019s a punch in the mouth from the government, and it\u2019s insulting. He expects his case will be denied.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy case, if anything, should be a slam dunk,\u201d Wenger said. \u201cI got CIDP. It\u2019s a reaction to the vaccine. If I got CIDP from the shingles vaccine, I\u2019d be covered under the [National] Vaccine Injury Compensation Program [VICP]. I would be able to hire an attorney who would fight my case in vaccine court before a judge.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wenger was referring to a separate vaccine injury compensation program<\/a>, VICP, which covers vaccines routinely administered to children and pregnant women. CICP, on the other hand, focuses on countermeasures implemented during emergencies such as pandemics and was established under the aegis of the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness (PREP) Act<\/a> of 2005.<\/p>\n

Although the federal government\u2019s national emergency and public health emergency related to COVID-19 both ended on May 11, the liability shield for COVID-19 vaccines<\/a> under the PREP Act will remain in effect until at least December 2024.<\/p>\n

Vaccine-injured \u2018the dirty little secret nobody wants to talk about\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

Wenger is working with Reps. Debbie Lesko and Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) to raise awareness about these issues, in addition to visiting Washington, where he says he\u2019s met with almost 30 representatives.<\/p>\n

He said:<\/p>\n

\u201cYou get a lot of lip service from them. \u2018Oh, yeah, we\u2019re going to do this, this and this.\u2019 It\u2019s all lip service.<\/p>\n

\u201cI refer to myself as collateral damage of the COVID vaccine, and nobody wants to talk about it. Nobody wants to do anything about it. We\u2019re the COVID vaccine\u2019s dirty little secret, all of us vaccine-injured. We\u2019re the dirty little secret nobody wants to talk about. But here we are, and we make as much noise as we can.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

On one of his visits to Washington with React19<\/a>, an advocacy group for the vaccine-injured, he had the opportunity to speak with Dr. Peter Marks<\/a>, director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat really shook me was how cold Peter Marks was about this, almost condescending,\u201d Wenger said. \u201cI told him what had happened to me, what I had gone through and what I got done. His response to me was, \u2018Well, yeah, that\u2019s why we got rid of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine<\/a>.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought that was a little condescending of them, especially knowing what we\u2019re going through and the fact that there\u2019s no assistance out there for anybody and people are losing, losing everything,\u201d Wenger remarked.<\/p>\n

Wenger praised the work of React19 and its founder, Brianne Dressen<\/a>, who was injured by the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine during its clinical trial. He said he works \u201cwith some of the greatest people\u201d through the organization, and has met other vaccine-injured individuals who provide each other emotional support.<\/p>\n

In May, Dressen and others sued President Biden<\/a> and other members of the federal government, alleging the U.S. government colluded with social media companies to censor them when they posted stories about their personal vaccine injury experiences.<\/p>\n

Wenger has a message for others injured by the vaccine:<\/p>\n

\u201cMy message is, No. 1, don\u2019t give up. No matter how dark and hopeless it seems at times, fight on. There is a light at the end of the tunnel. You may not be able to see it today, but it\u2019s out there.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re the one who determines how fast you recover and to what extent you\u2019re going to recover. For me, it\u2019s been hard work. It\u2019s been my full-time job for the last year-and-a-half, almost two years now. My full-time job has been working out at the gym, trying to recover \u2026 and I\u2019m getting there and I\u2019m happy with where I\u2019m at right now.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s going to be days where it\u2019s one step forward, two steps back, and then it\u2019s going to be two steps forward, one step back,\u201d Wenger added. \u201cYou have to take the bad days with the good days. It\u2019s all about how bad you want it. That\u2019s what it\u2019s all about.\u201d<\/p>\n

________________________________________________<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Michael Nevradakis, Ph.D., based in Athens, Greece, is a senior reporter for <\/em>The Defender and part of the rotation of hosts for CHD.TV’s “<\/em>Good Morning CHD.”<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Go to Original – childrenshealthdefense.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

7 Jun 2023 – Injured by the COVID19 vaccine–that his employer forced him to get–Stephen Wenger is now unable to work full-time and is facing more than $70,000 in medical bills: exclusive interview.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":237241,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2124],"tags":[887,1829,1868,2504,888],"class_list":["post-237239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-debates-on-covid-vaccines","tag-big-pharma","tag-coronavirus","tag-covid-19","tag-johnson-and-johnson-vaccine","tag-vaccines"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237239"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237239\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":237242,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237239\/revisions\/237242"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/237241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}