Age: 70.0
Sex: F
Vaccine: COVID19
Symptoms: Back pain, Balance disorder, Computerised tomogram, Disability, Disorientation
Clinical narrative: She got her vaccine, just felt a little tired, nothing unusual, little sluggish like coming down with a cold which lasted a couple of days. Within a few days started noticing some weakness in her right leg but nothing profound. She started noticing that her balance was kind of off a little bit, and by 11/20/21 she felt extreme pain in her lower back, kind of across her lower back, funny pins and needles like a numbness. She noticed that her right leg was getting very weak, and felt kind of wobbly, disoriented feeling. She went to go and get her husband to tell him that she needed to go to the ER and collapsed onto the floor. Her right leg went under her, could not use her right arm or hand at all, and he called 911. She was rushed to local Hospital. The pain in her lower back was extreme. After the extreme pain was a bizarre numbness, strange kind of numb feeling. At the hospital they thought she had a stroke.  They did a CAT scan, and gave her an aspirin. She was totally coherent, never lost her cognitive ability, and knew what was going on. They told her they were going to put dye in her veins, and had the IV. She was put into a CAT scan and kept asking her other neurologic questions and did an MRI. The first MRI was done the first night. The next day she had another MRI for her back as she told them she was having pain. They did about 1 1/2 hour MRI then.  The next day she was released to care unit. They had a transport come to take her to local Health facility. That morning (Neurologist) who came in and told her that they had no explanation of what happened to her. She did not have a stroke, had all of her mental capabilities and lost all muscle power in both her right arm and leg. She was not able to lift her right arm up. That evening around 5:00 she was transported for rehab. She was in rehab (local Health) for 2 weeks, which she needed to be in their longer but due to Medicare she had to be sent home. She continues to do therapy and has home health care. She saw a spine specialist for her back for all the nerves to make sure there was no nerve damage and that was a 2 1/2 MRI, and he could find nothing that showed any nerve damage that would contribute to the paralysis. She also saw a 2nd neurologist and she said that she was a mystery and that they did not know what happened to her. She asked when she got her COVID shot and would not say whether she felt it was due to that or not. She went to her PCP who asked her when she had the COVID vaccine, but again said that they did not know what happened to her.  She is improving with therapy, using a cane, and was informed it will be a long process, about a year or two. She has a walker to use. Patient feels like she has made some progress. She had no neurologic issues prior to the vaccine. She worked full time as a loan officer and was employee of the year and is on a disability leave at the present time.  In November they will access where she is at and whether she needs to keep her job or not. She has no coming from that job at this point. Due to her age she is not able to get disability. Financially this has been devastating. Her shoulder is now locked and she has someone come in twice a week and shower her and wash her head. There is a wellness service for the elderly and they take her to her Dr. appointments. She did not have any reaction to the first two vaccines other than tiredness, and took a day off from work and took it easy. She feels like somebody has dropped her off in the wilderness and said good luck. Nobody seems to care and give her answers as to what has happened and what to do.