Kelly Shorkey
Day 2 · September 9, 2026 · 0:22:33
Key points Kelly Shorkey, 54, was a home and community nurse doing wound and palliative care for 15 years, highly active and on no medications. Counsel notes multiple bodies including BC's medical health officer, WorkSafeBC, Canada Life, and the Canada Pension Plan have confirmed she is vaccine injured, while the Vaccine Injury Support Program has not. She says she received two Pfizer doses and a Pfizer booster, developing debilitating full-body itching and back lesions within 48 hours of the second shot. She describes developing Bell's palsy that paralyzed the right side of her face, followed by synkinesis as the nerves regrew incorrectly. She reports polycranial nerve damage including trigeminal neuralgia, right-side limb weakness, bowel and vision problems, and convergence insufficiency. She says she can manage only one task per day and describes herself as 30 to 75 percent of the person she used to be. She says roughly 55 specialists offered little help, with neurologists refusing to discuss the vaccine or diagnosing functional neurological disorder.
Speaker 6
0:08 So our next witness is Kelly Shorkey. 0:11 Kelly, do you want to put that Bible in your right hand? 0:15 Kelly Shorkey, do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth to help you God? Speaker 6
0:24 Now, you're a very interesting case, and I'm going to lead here. 0:28 And you're an interesting case, and I hope that everyone is listening here. 0:33 So the following have confirmed that you're vaccine injured. 0:38 So the medical health officer of British Columbia has confirmed your vaccine injured. 0:42 Canada Life agrees that you're vaccine injured in a disability claim. 0:49 The Canadian Pension Plan agrees that you're vaccine injured. 0:53 WorkSafe BC, which is what British Columbia calls their workers' compensation system, believes you're vaccine injured. 1:00 So let me ask you, does the Vaccine Injury Support Program agree that you're vaccine injured? Speaker 1
1:06 No, they do not. Speaker 6
1:08 Okay. 1:08 So at least they're not, they can't be called followers. 1:13 So by way, just to introduce you, you were 54 years of age. 1:19 Yes. 1:21 You were a home and community nurse. 1:24 You did wound care and palliative care for 15 years. 1:29 And at the time of your vaccination, you were in effect working more than full time. 1:34 You paddleboard, you hiked, you sailed. 1:37 You did fitness classes. 1:38 You swam. 1:39 You socialized. 1:40 You traveled. 1:42 Just incredible amount of physical activity. 1:44 Your health was great. 1:45 You were on no medications, which is very telling. 1:49 Can you share with us your journey with the vaccines? Speaker 1
1:54 Okay. 1:55 So I was actually in Australia when Trudeau said Canadians come home March 2020. 2:04 And, you know, back to work I came. 2:07 because I didn't want to get stuck somewhere else. 2:10 And so the vaccines were due. 2:12 And, you know, with being a community nurse, we were getting our shots quite quickly. 2:18 So I had my first vaccine. 2:20 And then within six weeks, I had the second dose, both Pfizer's. 2:25 And right within 48 hours of having the second shot, I noticed that there was a 2:32 some itching at the base of my neck that I had never felt before. 2:36 And I just was monitoring that. 2:38 And then on the right side, I just kept watching it. 2:42 And I had actually gone to the doctor to say, you know, that something's wrong here. 2:47 And I developed three different lesions or plaques on my back that looked like rays. 2:53 They all had different characteristics. 2:56 And and then I just became systemically itchy all over my body that I don't have any never had allergies before and walked around with an itch stick for a year. 3:07 And then these three lesions stayed. 3:10 They were always there again, like with the different characteristics. 3:14 And I was having the doctor. 3:16 We were waiting for the allergist. 3:18 I suspected that it. Speaker 6
3:20 And can I just slow you down? 3:22 Because, you know, when you used to say, well, you were itchy for a year and 3:26 I don't think people are really appreciating what you're talking about. 3:29 You are talking about constantly, 24 hours a day, feeling itchy. 3:35 I mean, to the point where if you were at home, you couldn't wear clothes because that would be uncomfortable. 3:41 It literally was debilitating. 3:43 So it's just the word itchy can sound minimal, but what you were experiencing was something very different than that. 3:50 It was, yeah. Speaker 1
3:52 And we were looking into that. 3:53 And I was, you know, the doctor had put me on with an allergist, but it was a one-year wait list. 3:59 And a dermatologist, a year wait list. 4:02 But we did do a biopsy on one of the lesions on my back. 4:07 And so... 4:10 But of course, we were waiting. 4:11 And I'm still at work. 4:12 I'm having to take time off because of the condition that I had. 4:17 And then the booster was coming along. 4:20 And I had had Pfizer and Pfizer. 4:21 And Moderna was being pushed for the booster because I think it was the Delta virus that was out. 4:27 And that was the big thing. 4:28 Moderna was going to be the better of the two vaccines. 4:31 But having spoken with 4:33 A doctor, and I say a doctor, it was a clinic doctor, because I've been on a 15-year wait list to get a GP in BC. 4:40 Then, sorry, the time to get the booster. 4:46 And I said, you know, they were like, well, don't you want the Moderna? 4:50 And I said, no, we need to stick with the Pfizer vaccine because it's the devil you know, because we knew I was already having a reaction to it. 4:58 And then, so that would have been in November. 5:02 And I ended up off work for a few weeks. 5:08 See, I hadn't made the connection yet. 5:10 And I was like, there's something wrong, something wrong with my right leg. 5:14 And I thought because I was so active, I'd done something. 5:16 Maybe I slipped. 5:17 I didn't pay attention to a hiking trip that I'd done or anything like that. 5:22 And then I was, you know, talked to the doctor. 5:25 He's like, yeah, just stay home until you feel better. 5:27 I went back to work in January and 5:30 And I'd been back at work for about two weeks. 5:33 And COVID was flying around the office. 5:37 Different nurses were all dropping. 5:39 So I ended up, at the end of the day, something was wrong with the right side of my throat. 5:45 And I thought, well, this is different. 5:46 And I'm like, I wonder if I have COVID. 5:48 Because it was such an unusual sore throat situation. 5:51 So I went to my manager and I said, I'm going to I need to take the day off. 5:55 I'm not well and I need to go get COVID tested. 5:57 And I went and got tested for COVID and it was negative. 6:00 But I kept saying, there's something wrong here. 6:01 I don't I'm not going back to work yet because I'm off. 6:05 And I was at home and I remember going to bed after the news and went go brush my teeth. 6:11 And I went to go spit and I'm like, oh, and I know. 6:14 And I look up and my whole face had collapsed. 6:17 And I thought, oh, you know, is this a stroke? 6:19 And I did the stroke test. 6:20 And I'm like, OK, this is not a stroke. 6:22 I realized and I was I drove myself to the hospital and they took me in fairly quickly. 6:27 And they, you know, they were like, it's about palsy that you have. 6:33 So I was in and out of emergency amazingly in 45 minutes, but only with the Valtrex, not with the prednisone. 6:39 And I was lucky enough, you know, I had time on my phone. 6:42 I'm like, oh, I should have had that prednisone. 6:44 and you're supposed to get it within 72 hours. 6:46 So I ended up getting into the urgent care clinic and I got the prednisone to go along with the Valtrex as a treatment within the 72 hours. 6:56 And then with the Bell's palsy, you know, they're like, come back in two weeks, it'll resolve. 7:00 And I'm like, so I went back and they're like, oh, it's not resolved. 7:04 And I'm like, yeah, you figure. Speaker 6
7:06 Can you describe what is Bell's palsy? Speaker 1
7:08 So Bell's palsy is, so you have 12 cranial nerves in your head and it's cranial nerve seven. 7:15 And basically what happens with Bell's palsy, it's like you pull the plug and your whole face just stops working. 7:23 On whichever side the cranial nerve gets affected is the best way that I was explained to it. 7:28 So I was a little bit different where my face went tight. 7:32 Other people, they'll lose their droop, the face, you drool. 7:37 My eye was like rolling to the back of my head. 7:39 I couldn't close my eyelid. 7:42 And I couldn't lift my face. 7:46 My mouth was closed, difficulty eating. 7:48 But that's pretty much it. 7:49 You have the facial paralysis and it also goes into your platysma. Speaker 6
7:54 We're just going to pull up some photos. 7:58 So this is a photo of you before. Speaker 1
8:02 Yeah, that's interesting. 8:03 I never take selfies and I thought I'm just going to take a selfie just a week before the injury happened. Speaker 6
8:09 Okay. 8:10 And so this is you a week before the injury. 8:13 Can we go to the next photo? 8:15 So describe what's happening here. Speaker 1
8:17 Well, that's in my physio because I had a facial physiotherapist come to my house and she was taking pictures and she's, you know, this is what was happening. 8:24 So I was just trying to close my eye and that's what was happened. 8:29 Just try to relax. Speaker 6
8:31 So you were physically unable to close your eye as part of the facial paralysis. 8:38 And can we go to the next photo? Speaker 1
8:40 Yeah, that's just lifting, trying to smile. Speaker 6
8:45 Right, so half of your face works and the other half doesn't. Speaker 6
8:52 Okay, so you went from being symmetrical using all of your face to basically now half of your face is different. Speaker 6
9:00 Now you also then get this synkinesis. Speaker 1
9:03 Mm-hmm. 9:04 Yeah. 9:05 So the synkinesis is what happens is when the nerves grow back, they grow back a millimeter over time, little piece, and then just end up growing back wrong. 9:14 So when, you know, if I chew food, my eye will close and, you know, it just makes my face behave differently than it did before because the nerve has gone off. Speaker 6
9:27 Okay. 9:28 And you also have some nerve damage. 9:30 Can you share with us about that? Speaker 1
9:32 Yeah. 9:32 And so, 9:34 With my condition, I'm uniquely, everything only happened on the right side of my body. 9:39 This has nothing to do with the left. 9:42 So I have limb weakness on the right side. 9:46 So, you know, going upstairs, all of a sudden, my leg just doesn't want to work anymore. 9:50 I noticed going swimming. 9:53 I, my arm will just stop working. 9:56 There's no rhyme or reason for it. 9:58 It just will do that. 9:59 I can't, you know, and then over time, I've actually gotten significantly worse. 10:05 My foot's collapsed. 10:08 Where it used to become weak, I am permanently weaker on the right hand side. 10:13 Yeah. 10:15 Yeah. Speaker 6
10:17 You also have trigeminal neuralgia, which I understand is one of the most painful conditions that we know about. Speaker 1
10:24 Yes, and so I have polycranial nerve damage. 10:27 So trigeminal is nerve 5, which is also included. 10:32 I have 5, 7, 9, and 10, and probably more. 10:36 We're not quite sure, but 5 can be extremely, extremely painful. 10:41 At the moment, it ebbs and flows, but it can affect the jaw, the teeth, 10:47 And pain is very bad pain. Speaker 6
10:52 How are you doing today? Speaker 1
10:53 Today, with the trigeminal, so the pain is okay. 10:58 It's just that it's a chronic, all the time condition that I have to deal with. 11:04 And as far as today goes, I never have a good day. 11:10 I'm all, you know, like, it's hard to explain 11:16 I've never been the same person. 11:17 I think the best way I can describe it is, you know, I am anywhere from 75% to 30% of the person I used to be, percentage-wise. 11:29 There's days where I have flares, so things come and go. 11:32 I might get a little bit better. 11:33 And then I get excited and I think, oh, there's a possibility if this trajectory keeps going, I will have an opportunity to return to work, to return to my life. 11:43 And then I get these flares and I never recover to the point where I was before. 11:50 And these occur quite regularly, like three times a year where I think I'm going to possibly get better. 11:58 And then I don't. Speaker 6
11:59 Right. 12:00 But you're in pain right now. Speaker 1
12:03 I am not in pain right now. Speaker 1
12:06 Yeah. 12:07 Yeah. Speaker 6
12:09 Now, number 10. 12:12 affects heart rate, bowels, urinary function. 12:16 And so you live on the edge of incontinence. Speaker 1
12:21 Yeah, and with my bowels too, they don't communicate with me anymore. 12:26 I have to, you know, and with my nursing background, I know exactly what I need to do to try to make sure things are functioning properly. 12:34 But yeah, it's definitely affected. Speaker 6
12:37 And then you talked about your right arm. 12:40 Can you tell us about your vision? Speaker 1
12:42 Yeah. 12:43 So my vision, I noticed it was affected from the beginning. 12:47 I noticed right away, I was at the gym, actually had gone to go swimming. 12:50 And I noticed that, hey, I misread a number. 12:54 And I like this. 12:55 And it wasn't a dyslexia kind of number. 12:58 It was a real thing. 12:58 My brain picked up something and believed what I saw. 13:03 And then it's like, all of a sudden, it's like, oh, this is not this is incorrect. 13:07 And I found the different ways. 13:08 So 13:09 With my vision, we have finally figured out after four years that it's called convergence insufficiency. 13:15 My eyes do not work together anymore. 13:18 And for whatever's happened inside my head, I don't read things properly. 13:24 I misunderstand things. 13:27 I would be very harmful. 13:29 I will never choose to administer medication again because I might think that this is 10 milligrams when it should be just one milligram. Speaker 6
13:39 When you and I were interviewing, I don't even remember when that was, but probably a couple of weeks ago now, you said to me that testifying here is going to wipe you out. 13:50 Can you share with us about that and what's going on there? Speaker 1
13:55 So I basically, since my injury, I guess the best way I can put it is I can do one thing a day. 14:04 I have to choose, though. 14:05 It's like, do I want to shower or do I want to? 14:08 get to this appointment? 14:11 Do I want to go grocery shopping or do I want to make it out to see a friend? 14:16 I have to pick and choose what those things are. 14:22 The more I do, I find then I just need to rest. 14:26 It's just not a possibility. 14:28 I'm non-functioning. 14:31 I need to stay home. 14:32 I need to stay in a controlled, safe environment. Speaker 6
14:36 So you actually have to plan 14:38 what you do and what you don't do, including showering. Speaker 1
14:41 Yeah. 14:43 I had one doctor ask, what's your burden of the day? 14:46 What's your everyday? 14:47 And every day I wake up and I don't know what to expect. Speaker 6
14:53 So, like I say, yours is an interesting case because it seems that out of everyone I've interviewed, more people agree this is, like you literally gave me a letter from the medical health officer of British Columbia saying this is vaccine injury. Speaker 1
15:08 That's correct. Speaker 6
15:08 WorkSafeBC says this is a vaccine injury. 15:10 CCP, Canadian Pension Plan, says this is a vaccine injury. 15:14 Sun Life, this says vaccine injury. 15:18 What has been your experience with medical care? Speaker 1
15:22 Okay. 15:23 Well, you know, this is hard because these are my coworkers. 15:28 I guess right off the bat, nobody did say it's not a vaccine injury. 15:35 None of the doctors did that. 15:37 I just find it now into the years I have doctors that say, even though it's on record, you think you have a vaccine injury. 15:45 Or I've read reports where the doctor states she thinks she's got cranial nerve damage when the language is there. 15:54 I don't need to prove this. 15:56 I don't need doctors to understand if they had the time to come to my appointment prepared, 16:05 they would be able to see that all of this stuff is, is there. 16:09 So how have I been treated? 16:11 Well, I've 55 specialists, clinicians later, I'm still here being assessed, proving, you know, asking to prove how unwell really am I. I have had a few good doctors that have 16:29 You know, I had one because I don't have a GP. 16:32 So urgent care clinician who's like, who's following you? 16:35 And I'm like, well, nobody. 16:36 And he says, well, I'm only work weekends. 16:38 But, you know, and I'm like, I'll take it. 16:41 And just once a month I would go in. 16:44 Just to check in and he, you know, because there was nothing really we could do. 16:48 Just waiting to see the specialists. 16:50 And that was the biggest disappointment was going in and finally seeing the neurologists and the specialists were, because I would ask him like, please don't discharge me, there's something wrong. 17:00 And they're like, well, we don't know enough about this. 17:03 So I'm going to discharge you. 17:05 And I would even ask, like, can I get another referral? 17:08 And they said, well, we don't know what we would refer them to. 17:10 And I said, well, this is a vaccine injury. 17:12 Are you not interested in learning and even just keeping me on so that we can, you know, explore this in the future to learn what it is that's been happening to us? 17:25 And they're like, no, that's not what we do here. 17:28 And then I had a follow up. 17:31 Second opinion with another neurologist. 17:34 And, you know, we came down with the FND. 17:37 That was, you know, they concurred. Speaker 6
17:39 Functional neurological disorder, which means we don't know. Speaker 1
17:43 Exactly. 17:44 Exactly. 17:44 And it's also considered the woman's disease. 17:46 But that's another thing, too, where, you know, psychological stuff that's. 17:52 So when I asked the second neurologist, could you please educate me? 17:57 on what this, what is going on with me through the vaccine. 18:01 This is your job. 18:02 You're the neurologist. 18:03 Please find out what you know, because they have access to information I do not have access to. 18:09 And I think it's their job. 18:10 You're going to give me a diagnosis. 18:12 It's your job to please explain to me what is going on with me. 18:16 And so I said with the COVID vaccine injury, and this is the, the neurologist goes, no, no, no, I will not get into the politics of this. 18:26 And I just, 18:29 I just go, I don't know what to do. 18:31 I don't know where to go. Speaker 6
18:32 I think you just spoke volumes. 18:35 You had said to me in an earlier interview that you cry every time you have to go to a specialist. 18:40 Yeah. 18:41 Can you share about that? Speaker 1
18:42 Yeah. 18:42 Well, I cry because I know I would love to go in with a quick brochure, but I always get reassured. 18:51 No, no, they'll come prepared and understanding my case. 18:55 And every time I walk in and I'm like, oh, no. 18:58 They don't know what they're talking about because they don't have the experience. 19:04 I have more experience with vaccine injury than a doctor that I see. 19:08 And I'm expecting them to make a decision on something that they know nothing about. 19:15 So I would love to find a doctor who is interested in just wanting to be interested in learning as to what's happened to us. Speaker 2
19:36 I don't really have any questions. 19:37 You really touched on all the topics with your testimony. 19:44 What you did say with educating you when you go to your appointments, I think that's something you touched on that. 19:52 That touched, I think, a lot of the testimonies that 19:57 The doctors aren't educating the patients on what they should be educating them on and how the process works to move forward to find a diagnosis to get you through the process. 20:08 So I don't have any questions, but thanks for being here. 20:12 And a lot of your testimony hit on a lot of the topics that I don't have any questions. 20:16 Maybe my colleague does. 20:17 I don't know. 20:18 Thank you for being here. Speaker 3
20:20 Thank you. 20:21 Thanks for being here and sharing your story. 20:23 I don't have any questions, but you know what? 20:26 After listening to all the witnesses that I have listened to this morning, when these victims are being, say, discouraged or pushed away by these professionals, psychologists, neurologists, and all those, it's just... 20:44 In my opinion, it's not only minimizing the current situation or the victims of these vaccine injuries. 20:51 It's also setting a trend that we don't want to be prepared for future situations so that they won't happen in the next pandemic or any if we lead to that situation in future, God forbid. 21:06 So I feel that these kind of inquiries are very important to change that mindset and whether they are 21:14 professional bodies, whether they are the scientist or the psychologist, the specialist, those are assigned. 21:22 The mindset needs to be changed so that not only these injuries be minimized, but they should be avoided altogether. 21:30 Thank you for being here. Speaker 5
21:31 And Kelly, do you mind if I ask what type of... 21:35 support you have at home? Speaker 1
21:37 Oh, yeah. 21:38 No, I am completely independent. 21:41 And yeah, I had a brother who was my family. 21:48 And then unfortunately, he had long COVID, but we don't know that 100% could have been a vaccine injury. 21:56 And then he died tragically just a year and a half ago. 21:59 And so I have, you know, my made up family, but my immediate family that's Speaker 5
22:05 And so your friends are very supportive? Speaker 5
22:08 That's excellent. Speaker 1
22:09 Yeah, and where I live in the apartment building and, you know. Speaker 5
22:13 Well, listen, Kelly, thank you once again for sharing your story and once again helping us understand a little bit more the challenges that people are going through. Speaker 1
22:21 So thank you. 22:22 You're very welcome. 22:23 Thank you, guys.