Reply To: Another vaccine victim added to the long list

My father, who was in dialysis, had to have a flu shot in order to be put on the transplant list (all his other vaccines were up to date). Not long after that, he began with the numbness. GBS was diagnosed at first, but when the symptoms worsened, and another neurologist saw him, CIDP was the verdict. he underwwent IVIG and the usual drug therapies, and was in a remission that allowed him to walk without a walker, even to go up short flights of stairs. Unfortunately, this did not last long, and before long, he was in a motorized wheelchair. He ended up in a hospital bed, at home, as my mother would not allow him to go into a nursing home. He died on January 28th, 2014 of aspiration pneumonia.
None of us knew of that you could get money if a flu shot was suspected of causing CIDP, which my dad’s neurologists strongly suspected. Although money was not an issue (God bless the UAW for getting him such wonderful retirement health benefits from General Motors! If you think unions are harming this country, think of how my dad’s quality of life would have been, had he been shuffled off to a nursing home as a welfare patient, where overworked aides and nurses would never have given him the quality treatment he was able to have with therapists, in home aides and nurses, specialists, the treatments they prescribed, and that wonderful motorized wheelchair), the money my mom could’ve received could’ve been donated for the care of someone less fortunate.