Virginia Teen Athlete In Wheel Chair After H1N1 Vaccine Shot

    A teenage Virginia athlete is in a wheel chair now after suffering Guillain-Barre Syndrome within hours after receiving an H1N1 swine flu vaccine shot.Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS) is the name given to anyone who exhibits a particular set of neurological symptoms including muscle weakness and muscle spasms. 14-year-old Jordan McFarland developed severe headaches, muscle spasms and weakness in his legs after being injected. He will need “extensive physical therapy” to recovery, reports MSNBC. Plus, he’ll need the help of a walker for four to six weeks. NaturalNews) A teenage Virginia athlete is in a wheel chair now after suffering Guillain-Barre Syndrome within hours after receiving an H1N1 swine flu vaccine shot. 14-year-old Jordan McFarland developed severe headaches, muscle spasms and weakness in his legs after being injected. He will need “extensive physical therapy” to recovery, reports MSNBC. Plus, he’ll need the help of a walker for four to six weeks.

  Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS) is the name given to anyone who exhibits a particular set of neurological symptoms including muscle weakness and muscle spasms. GBS is now increasingly occurring following H1N1 vaccine injections. It was diagnosed in thousands of patients following the 1976 swine flu vaccine scare, and it appears to be recurring here in 2009 as the swine flu vaccine makes it into more widespread distribution.

  Health authorities, however, remain adamant that H1N1 vaccines are never the cause of GBS, and that such diagnoses are “pure coincidence.” This blatantly unscientific P.R. tactic is designed to dismiss any and all concerns over the neurological side effects of H1N1 vaccines by simply denying they exist. To date, the CDC has received reports of five additional people being diagnosed with GBS following swine flu vaccinations, but it dismisses them all as coincidence. “It’s much less than we’d expect,” says CDC official Dr. Claudia J. Vellozzi. (Which is sort of interesting all by itself, because it reveals that the CDC expects a lot more people to get GBS following vaccine injections…)

  At the same time, part of the reason the CDC isn’t receiving many reports on neurological disorders caused by H1N1 vaccines is because they participated in a massive media brainwashing event that prepped the population to dismiss all side effects by pre-announcing the bizarre idea that “side effects experienced after vaccine injections are not related to vaccines.” 

  This was an organized, nationwide media brainwashing campaign engineered by the CDC, FDA and drug companies. It sought to pre-program health consumers to automatically dismiss serious side effects that appeared in the hours after receiving swine flu vaccine injections.

  The campaign worked. In fact, even the GBS of this young man, Jordan McFarland, wasn’t submitted to the CDC. It only came to light when his step-mother submitted details to MSNBC.com’s reader reporting tool. In other words, this was citizen journalism at work, where a parent submitted information directly to the media.

  For this to occur is exceedingly rare. Most parents would simply wait for their doctor to submit such information to health authorities, not knowing that submitting reports of vaccine-related side effects remains voluntary in modern medicine.

  No requirement to report vaccine side effects...
You read that right: There is no requirement that doctors send reports of vaccine side effects to any health authority at all. 

  And that raises the question: So how do they really know how many people are suffering neurological side effects from the H1N1 vaccines?

Debra Stein dies - Berkeley land use expert

Corey Paul, Chronicle Staff Writer
Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Debra Stein - a land use expert and attorney who helped developers win over city governments and community malcontents - died July 30 from complications related to a rare neurological disease. She was 48.

Ms. Stein, president of the San Francisco public affairs firm GCA Strategies, represented the wealthy and the down-and-out equally, from corporate Burger King to homeless shelters. She left her mark on the San Francisco skyline, helping to win approval for a number of structures, including the South of Market high-rise at 55 Second St. and Sutro Tower, the three-pronged antenna that pokes through the fog.

She was known nationally as an expert on understanding NIMBYism or what motivates residents who oppose development beneficial to the community.

"The person who deserves credit for my career," Ms. Stein told Affordable Housing Finance magazine last year, "is a woman who spit on me at a public hearing 20 years ago. As I was wiping saliva off my arm, I said to myself, 'I am going to figure out why that happened and never let it happen again.' "

Ms. Stein, a Berkeley resident, published four books and dozens of articles about raising community support and finding political solutions for controversial land use projects. But affordable housing, especially in her last years, was her dearest cause.

Born Sept. 6, 1960, in San Jose, Ms. Stein graduated from UC Berkeley in 1981 with a degree in political management. After graduation, she worked for the San Francisco public relations firm Judith Brown and Associates. She rallied support of the Hacienda Business Park in Pleasanton, which now employs thousands.

For eight years, Ms. Stein ran a public relations firm. In 1986, she met architect Jeffrey Heller while they worked on a project together in City Hall. They married the next year.

At the time she met Heller, Ms. Stein was taking night classes at University of San Francisco School of Law. She graduated in 1987.

In 1990, Ms. Stein founded GCA Group. Four years later, with more associates, it became GCA Strategies.

In 2004, Ms. Stein wrote to friend Cindy Wilson: "I'd actually like to get out of the rat race a bit. The opposite of ambition is satisfaction - I've been on the ambition route. I'm starting to enjoy the sit-back-and-enjoy-life side of things more."

She delegated work at GCA to others so she could focus more on her passions: traveling the world with her husband and fighting for affordable housing.

By then, Ms. Stein was co-chair of the Northern California chapter of the Jane Austen Society, an avocation she pursued after reading Austen's "Pride and Prejudice" and becoming drawn to the novelist's themes of ethics, morality and marginalized women.

Development and architecture organizations frequently booked Ms. Stein to speak at seminars. It was on one of these routine ventures, in San Jose, that she died, Wilson said.

Ms. Stein had reflex sympathetic dystrophy syndrome, suffering chronic pain for about 15 years.

"She was remarkably stoic," Heller said. "She never let it get in her way."

Ms. Stein is survived by her husband, stepdaughter Rebecca Heller of Los Angeles, and brother Doug Stein and sister Sharon Moerner, both of San Jose.

A memorial service was held last Wednesday.
E-mail Corey Paul at cpaul@sfchronicle.com.

This article appeared on page D - 8 of the San Francisco Chronicle

Disabled sailor taken to hospital

Page last updated at 21:54 GMT, Saturday, 6 June 2009 22:54 UK

A quadriplegic yachtswoman was taken to hospital after suffering the effects of cold off the west Wales coast.

Hilary Lister, 37, from Kent, is aiming to become the first disabled woman to sail solo around Britain.

The Fishguard RNLI lifeboat took the sailor off her boat after the weather deteriorated and she had a check-up at in hospital at Haverfordwest.

Her boat was eventually towed to shore by her support boat under the supervision of the lifeboat.

A spokesman for Ms Lister said there had already been a plan with the RNLI to take Ms Lister off her boat when she reached Fishguard but this was brought forward.

There had been no radio contact after the yachtswoman failed to arrive in port at the appointed time.

Peter Kedward from the RNLI at Fishguard explained: "Eventually the coastguard managed to make radio contact and established that she was two miles north of Strumble Head and under tow by her support boat.

"Conditions were becoming very difficult and the tide had turned against her."

The support boat with four on board requested assistance from the Fishguard lifeboat which stood alongside as the tow continued.

Mr Kedward added: "With force five winds and with wind over tide, the sea state became very demanding and the lady requested to be transferred to the all-weather lifeboat as she was becoming hypothermic."

Assistance was requested from a Stena ferry, which was approaching inbound Fishguard from Rosslare.

The RNLI crew made radio contact with the ferry and requested a weather lee so they could transfer Mrs Lister into the lifeboat more comfortably.

But in the end the transfer was not possible because of the conditions and the tow continued into Fishguard harbour where Mrs Lister was transferred to the inshore lifeboat in calmer waters and then taken onto Withybush hospital by ambulance.

Mrs Lister, from Faversham in Kent, is disabled from the neck down.

She is trying to become the first disabled woman to sail solo around Britain, and - in the process - the first disabled sailor - male or female - to conquer the Irish Sea.

On her website today, she said she arrived at Fishguard at 0130 after an "excellent sail followed by a very difficult end," and that they were remaining in port for another week.

The start of the current bid in Plymouth last month was delayed after she developed breathing difficulties.

She had to abandon her first attempt last August because of technical problems and bad weather.

Ms Lister uses a "sip-and-puff" system of straws to control her boat.

Her specially-adapted vessel, an Artemis 20 called Me Too, has been designed to be operated through three "straws".

Ms Lister, a biochemistry Oxford graduate, became the first quadriplegic sailor to sail solo across the English Channel in 2005 and two years later was the first quadriplegic woman to sail around the Isle of Wight.

She was wheelchair-bound at the age of 15 because of a progressive neurological disorder, reflex sympathetic dystrophy.

Jacksonville Woman Develops RSD after Dog Bite

Posted On:
December 30, 2008 by Thomas & Lawrence



A Jacksonville woman developed reflex sympathetic dystrophy (RSD) after being attacked by a dog on her own property. The dog bit deeply in her arm, but the wound itself was not severe enough to require stitches. After being initially seen by doctors she was sent home.

Within days she developed a serious infection of the wound site. The infection was followed by the onset of severe burning pain, color changes, a cooler temperature in the arm, and abnormal hair growth on the arm. Unfortunately, all of these are classic symptoms of RSD.

RSD, previously known as Complex Regional Pain Syndrome, is a serious, usually permanent neurological condition that is usually caused by an injury to an extremity.

This situation highlights the very serious nature of dog attacks. Every year, we hear of people seriously injured or killed by pet dogs in Jacksonville. Children are the most frequent victims of dog attacks, accounting for 70% of dog attack injuries. In the United States, there are almost 600,000 dog bite wounds that require medical care each year.




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