600 bamboo stakes stood amongst the crowd at the Kerang Community Market on Saturday. Each stake held the story of an Australian who had an adverse reaction to the mandated COVID-19 therapeutic. These individuals had their cases listed on the TGA website and wanted their story told, or in the cases of those who died, a story their family shares.
Amongst the rows walked Dale Collin. The 65-year-old footy fanatic from Deniliquin had a passion for coaching kids and supporting older residents in his role as a carer.
“I got pressured into getting the shots. I got two, the AstraZenecas, and I was really worried about the last one.
“My sons told me not to get the Pfizer shot because I was really fit, but I thought I’d sneak it in because I really needed to work.
“I just thought oh yeah, I’ll get it and I’ll be fine, but I wasn’t fine.”
Within a couple of weeks, Dale had developed Guillain Barre Syndrome.
“It just dropped me one day, I came home with a headache from work and by that night, I was in the Echuca Hospital.
“I couldn’t walk by the time I got there; it was only an hour away, but they had to use a wheelchair to get me out.”
Dale’s reaction was so severe he was transferred to Melbourne and placed in an induced coma for three weeks.
“I woke up and I was crippled from the neck down, and I had a tracheotomy.
“I died three times. They called my sons in and family when they got down from Bendigo to Melbourne, and they wouldn’t let them in.
“I’m there dying, and they wouldn’t let them in. Eventually, my son, arguing the point, found the right thing to say for them to see me for the last time.”
Thankfully, it wasn’t Dale’s time, but what followed was nine months of being crippled, six of those months on his back, unable to move, with the tracheotomy keeping him alive.
“I was hooked up to feeding tubes, but I kept a positive attitude in my head.
“Some don’t understand that you may not be able to move but you’ve still got a brain in there. Some treated me really bad, but other nurses were really good and looked after me.”
Dale praised his wife, who, a former nurse herself, was there every day to keep an eye on his care.
“I nearly died as they were feeding me with all this food containing lactose. I’m lactose intolerant, and my stomach swelled up, spewing up my bowels.
“My wife was there every day; she came in at nine o’clock because she didn’t trust the nurses.
“I’m just being truthful; all professions have some bad people.”
While Dale’s days of sprinting up and down the footy field with the kids are no longer possible, he is thankful he can now move around with the aid of a cane, and support of carers.
“My wife became my full-time carer, and I have a carer who comes around and takes me out.
“I’m just happy to be alive and fighting for a cause.”
Kerang local Mark Henderson said the day was about having conversations and letting people know there is help out there.
“It’s a respectful tribute to the voices of those unheard.
“People get shocked when they see it. Sharon and Sally, who put this together, put on displays every weekend.
“Every weekend, these go up all around the country. It’s a little bit confronting. We’ve a few negative comments, but mainly people just look quietly, and it gives them something to think about.”
Mark says there is help for people out there who are still suffering, pointing to the i-Recover protocol of Cardiologist and Epidemiologist Dr Peter McCullough.
To date, the Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration has received 139,000 reported adverse events from the COVID-19 vaccines, representing 20% of all reported side effects, for all medicines for the past 50 years.