A mother-of-two claims she has been left in debilitating pain and now relies on a wheelchair to get around after receiving three doses of a Covid vaccine.
Mel Guevremont, 37, says she has gone from being a keen gym-goer, surfer, snowboarder and rock climber to barely being able to take a few steps around her home before her legs give out.
Ms Guevremont, from Sydney, claims her body has broken down and she has been forced to wear a neck brace since receiving her third Pfizer mRNA vaccine in March 2022.
The TGA’s data shows 137,750 adverse events have been recorded among the 64.7 million COVID vaccine doses administered.
‘It’s ruined my life completely and utterly,’ she told Daily Mail Australia.
‘I am skin and bones. I don’t recognise myself. It’s not my body and I wake up with a new symptom every day. It’s a grieving process.’
Ms Guevremont and her partner Richard Ellison, who moved to Australia from Canada seven years ago, said they were forced to sell their Manly unit because it was located on the fourth floor and she struggles with stairs.
They now live with their two boys in a ground-level home in the south-eastern Sydney suburb of Maroubra.
Ms Guevremont said she has spent more than $25,000 seeing specialists, including neurologists and rheumatologists, but has not found them helpful.
Mel Guevremont (pictured with her partner Richard Ellison and their two sons) says the Pfizer vaccines have ruined her life
Ms Guevremont said she was ‘an adrenaline junkie’ before the vaccines. She is pictured here on a snowboarding holiday in New Zealand
Mel Guevremont says she has been left in a wheelchair after three doses of the Covid vaccine
Her comments come after a landmark Covid vaccine injury class-action lawsuit was filed in April against the Australian government, the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) and the Department of Health.
The nationwide suit, which reportedly has 500 members, seeks redress for those allegedly left injured or bereaved by the Covid vaccines.
Ms Guevremont said she was a fit and healthy woman who regularly took part in outdoor activities – but her active lifestyle has drastically changed.
‘Right before these jabs I was snowboarding in New Zealand. The only problem I had was a tweaked knee from too much surfing and playing basketball,’ she said.
‘I was an adrenaline junkie. I did not stop. It’s quite the clash for me to be barely able to hold a cup of coffee or hold my own neck.
‘How do you go from snowboarding, ripping on a mountain and having a great time, to all of a sudden can’t hold your neck?’
Ms Guevremont claims she is also suffering from electric shocks, unexplained weight loss and body weakness.
‘I went to a beauty salon and after a while I couldn’t feel my legs,’ she said.
‘When I tried to get up, my legs just completely collapsed. I sort of laughed and brushed it off.
‘I thought maybe it was related to post-pregnancy hormones.’
Before the Pfizer jabs, Ms Guevremont, 37, was a keen surfer going into the water every week
Ms Guevremont says she struggles to do basic physical activities like walk to the park or even pick up her two boys, who are aged two and four.
‘It breaks my heart. My young one wants to play soccer, and he knows I played soccer with him before, and all of a sudden I can’t,’ she said.
‘I wonder if I am going to be there for my kids.’
The mother has made farewell videos for her boys just in case she is ‘not around’ when they grow older.
In July 2021, Ms Guevremont caught Covid-19, which she said took her four days to get over, after which ‘she was fine’.
In November 2021, her condition spiralled and she fainted and collapsed.
‘My partner rushed me to the hospital and I stayed there for a week,’ she said.
She said a specialist suggested she might have ‘post-vaccination syndrome and potentially post-viral syndrome’ – although she only wrote the second diagnosis in her notes.
In referrals seen by Daily Mail Australia, hospitals and neurologists have diagnosed Ms Guevremont with ‘suspected vaccine injury’.
Despite having multiple tests, doctors were initially mystified by what was affecting Ms Guevremont (pictured here in hospital). She was eventually diagnosed with ‘suspected vaccine injury’, according to referrals seen by Daily Mail Australia
Last year, Ms Guevremont reported herself as a vaccine injury to the TGA but said she was still waiting for a response.
‘They fail to follow up and investigate,’ she said.
A TGA spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia an ‘acknowledgement email requesting further information was sent in response to an adverse event report submitted by Ms Guevremont’.
They added: ‘The TGA strongly encourages vaccine recipients and healthcare professionals to report their experience of suspected adverse events, even if there is only a very small chance a vaccine was the cause.
‘The TGA uses these reports to look for patterns in reporting that may indicate a new safety signal for a vaccine.’
The spokesperson said such a signal will lead ‘to appropriate regulatory action which may include making changes to a vaccine’s Product Information and communicating information to doctors.
‘To date, the TGA has initiated over 43 regulatory actions to include new safety information in Product Information documents,’ the TGA representative said.
But Ms Guevremont said she felt ‘abandoned’ and turned to Kerryn Phelps, the former head of the Australian Medical Association, for help.
Last December, Professor Phelps told a parliamentary inquiry into long Covid that both she and her wife had been vaccine-injured.
Ms Guevremont said Professor Phelps was very kind and supportive in referring her to a neurologist who ‘specialised in vaccine injuries’ but who turned out to be too busy to see her.
She also condemned the vaccine-injury compensation scheme run by Services Australia.
‘The compensation scheme is a joke,’ she said.
The compensation scheme for Pfizer vaccines includes about 10 eligible conditions, but these don’t include neurological conditions such as Guillain-Barre Syndrome and Transverse Myelitis, even though they are listed for AstraZeneca shots.
Ms Guevremont is looking into experimental treatments in the U.S. after seeing numerous specialists and trying various therapies in Australia
‘The TGA and regulators around the world continue to monitor and analyse Covid-19 vaccine safety data covering hundreds of millions of people, and the latest evidence from clinical trials and peer-reviewed medical literature,’ the TGA spokesperson said.
‘This information continues to overwhelmingly support the safe and effective use of Covid-19 vaccines.
‘It remains the consensus view of international regulators and health departments that the benefits of Covid-19 vaccination continue to far outweigh the rare risks.’
Ms Guevremont is currently looking at experimental treatments and possibly moving the U.S. to receive them.
She has also been involved in social media groups who share claims of vaccine injuries.
Her partner has set up a GoFundMe to help finance the family’s possible move or to fund treatments in Australia if his wife is not well enough to travel.
