Lucy Davies – Nuneaton, Warwickshire, age 14
Received Cervarix vaccination 21 September 2009 (one vaccination only)
Lucy awoke the next morning with total voice loss (Aphonia). She had an extremely sore throat and was feverish, plus she had pain at the injection site. We left if for a day or so, and then took her to the Doctors. He described her complaint as acute laryngitis. When queried over the possibility of a connection to the vaccination, he said, “No! Nothing more than a coincidence.” Although a known registered side effect was upper respiratory tract infection.
Lucy spent the next six weeks with no voice whatsoever. Her throat infection took three to four weeks to clear up. During this time, her joints had become painful and her legs were feeling weak, her swimming ground to a halt as she no longer had the energy.
(Note: Lucy was a competitive swimmer doing between 30,000/40,000 metres per week) Extremely fit young lady and a projected “A” pupil at school, with a very active social life.
In the meantime, her doctor had given Lucy lots of blood tests. She had also been seen by an ENT specialist at the hospital and she was seeing a voice therapist. Her voice returned to a whisper after about six weeks and with further help from the voice therapist, it is now back to normal.
Then, on 28 November 2009, Lucy suffered what appeared to be a severe fit of some description. Started complaining of extreme heat feeling and started to sweat profusely, heart racing and blood pumping, she then blacked out and had severe trembling of her arm and leg. She was carried out of the building and 999 was called. The paramedics revived her. Her blood pressure was very high and her heartbeat was over 150.
When they got her to the hospital and stabilized her, they said that she had had a panic attack which led her to hyper-ventilate. However, since that moment, Lucy is unable to walk properly. Her leg and hand still shake. We have seen a consultant at the hospital who said that he cannot find any evidence that she had had a seizure of any kind, and promptly discharged her.
This coming from a general consultant. Again, when asked about any link to the vaccine, there was no comment. He agreed with her GP’s analysis that Lucy was suffering from CFS (ME). An appointment was made with a Neurologist.
Lucy now attends school in a wheelchair and is very despondent over her situation.
Lucy’s Update (as described by her father, 25 March 2010):
We made our visit to Lucy’s GP, Dr. Burnett, two weeks ago now. Lucy has been seeing a different GP up until now, a Dr. Johnson, whom I must say for the first couple of months seemed very caring and worked tirelessly to try to find an answer. I guess that once he had seen the report on Lucy from Dr. Wood, who was the General Consultant at George Eliot Hospital, he more or less accepted his findings. After the blood tests and examination, he discharged her and thought there was no need for any further invasive investigation, although he had not found any answers, he preferred to discharge her. I found him to be very dismissive. I then got the impression that he felt there was nothing left for him to do and his diagnosis of ME was probably the correct one. Certainly the last occasion that my wife, Jill, visited Dr. Johnson with Lucy, she got the feeling of “oh what do you want now”!! Subsequently, I have contacted several leading hospitals in London with reference to Lucy’s condition and one doctor has expressed an interest, but has said that he would like to see Lucy’s medical records, which must include a report from a Neurologist.
So, I requested Lucy’s medical records in a letter from the GP’s on the 23th of February 2010, quoting that they must include all relevant correspondence and this must be legible and made ready for me within 12 days of receiving my letter. This is in accordance with the statutory agreement from the Secretary of State.
Alas, I have not received them yet, and had to chase them up yesterday. In between times, we visited Lucy’s own doctor, Dr. Burnett, who seemed very focused on Lucy and her thoughts, almost to the exclusion of us. I got the distinct impression that he thought we were coercing Lucy into pursuing this course of action. Having gone through her whole episode, he agreed, I feel somewhat reluctantly, to refer her to a Neurologist.
We promptly received our Choose and Book Appointment sheet, but are waiting for Birmingham Children’s Hospital to release some appointments. In the interim, we have insisted that she see a Physiotherapist, and have pushed very hard for this. My wife, Jill, made a real nuisance of herself, but was successful in getting an appointment with a great physiotherapist at the George Elliot Hospital, who has shown great concern over Lucy’s plight and was very sorry that he had not seen her earlier.
WOW !!! How good he has been for Lucy! Straight onto the crutches and out of the wheelchair at every available moment. Most days at school, it is crutches only now. We have taken her out on her crutches and she is far more confident and happy on them, rather than in the wheelchair.
Lucy turned 15 on Tuesday and had a great day! She was really positive about her future. I cried for hours that night with hope and joy. She is now coming to the end of her 3 month stint of drinking 1.5 litres a day of silica-rich Volvic water, as per the research of Dr. Chris Exley, at Keele University, into aluminium intolerance. I think it can only help and we are very greatful to him.
Please note: Lucy’s side effects started the day after vaccination and have changed as time has gone on. Her later problems of losing consciousness and trembling arm and leg have also been experienced by many other girls who have been vaccinated either with Gardasil, or Cervarix – the graphs on Miscellaneous Symptoms confirms this. The term ‘panic attack’ is used to cover this experience, but does not explain why a young, fit girl’s arm and leg would suddenly tremble and remain that way, preventing her from walking properly. Her previous health history surely has to tell a diferent story where these types of incidents just did not occur. (Freda Birrell – Editor)
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