EnableMe | enableme - stroke recovery and support

Our CEO, Dr Lisa Murphy spoke at a senate inquiry into the increased number of deaths in Australia between 2020 and 2023 during the height of the pandemic.

The evidence says, "While no excess deaths due to cerebrovascular diseases, including stroke were seen. We know that vital stroke prevention and treatment services were disrupted during this period which could have long-term consequences.

There could be an increase in the number of strokes in the coming years if people who lost out on early detection continue to have their stroke risk unmanaged.

And survivors of stroke who were unable to access timely acute stroke treatment and rehabilitation during the pandemic may now be living with significant disability that could have been avoided.

We thank the inquiry for the opportunity to voice our concerns on behalf of our community and hope that in the future we do things better.

There is some evidence that my haemorrhagic stroke in June 2021 was as a result of my first Astra zeneca vaccine.

I had the Astra Zeneca vaccine administered by my GP on 16 June. The next day I felt generally unwell but particularly fatigued. The following day I had an episode of feeling light-headed. I put all this down as potential consequences the vaccine. On 22 June, 6 days after the vaccine, I was shopping in Bunnings when I had a other episode of the same light- headed sensation. But instead of passing, this episode got more severe. I found I could not walk properly and was dragging my right leg. After a short time in the entrance to the Bunnings store my right side stopped working completely and I collapsed against the shop wall.

I was taken by ambulance to Wollongong hospital. I had an MRI. I recall the doctor telling me that I had had a bleed in my brain. Also that the bleed had not just occurred today but had been happening over several days. To me this correlated with the earlier light headed episode.

The timing in relation to my vaccination is too compelling to be dismissed as coincidence.

With regard to my general health I was an extremely fit 64 year old. I played squash at competition level twice a week and had been a regular player for 50 years. In 2016 I won an Australian Masters Squash title in my age group. I cycled 100km per week. My medical history has no record of high blood pressure and no family history of hypertension or stroke - unless you include the final event of my 97 year old fathers life.

But the Department oF Health team who supposedly investigated any causal links to the vaccine dismissed it as mere coincidence - without ever consulting me or the neurologist who treated me initially and reviewed the MRI.

I believe a lot of potential implications for stroke from Covid vaccine has been white washed away.

Thanks for your comment, Pete. Early in the COVID-19 vaccination program it was observed here and overseas that there were a small number of reports of unusual types of blood clots in people who had the AstraZeneca vaccine (Vaxzevria).

This condition, called thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome (TTS), was unusual in that it involved blood clots with a low count of platelets, which are small blood cells that normally form clots.

TTS sometimes led to a rare kind of stroke involving clots in veins rather than arteries. However, the low platelet count also means that bleeding was possible, although this seems to have been even rarer.

The Australian government’s Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), which approves vaccines and other medicines, is also responsible for monitoring safety after approval. The TGA has a system where anyone can report suspected side effects associated with a COVID-19 vaccine.

Please note that as the risks with the AstraZeneca vaccine emerged, other vaccines were more highly recommended, and it is now no longer available.

CEO, Dr Lisa Murphy spoke at a senate inquiry about Covid-19

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