Dianne Spaulding
Day 4 · September 11, 2026 · 0:25:59
Key points Dianne Spaulding, now 61, was a healthcare lab technician in good health who enjoyed biking, hiking, and time with her grandchildren before her injury. She testifies that on April 23, 2021, she received her first and only COVID vaccine, AstraZeneca, after a pharmacist assured her that thrombocytopenia was extremely rare. She says she developed flu-like symptoms, then a bleed on her arm, and her naturally elevated platelet count dropped, though the ER called it a good reaction and sent her home. She describes progressive symptoms including widespread bruising, petechiae, pins and needles, blurry vision, tremors, skin peeling, light and noise sensitivity, and a persistent drugged feeling. She says she spent much of the summer bedridden, and that hospital staff placed her among other vaccine-injured people, ran an inconclusive CT scan, and suggested anxiety and a psych consult. She recounts receiving a Toronto Public Health letter recommending a second dose despite her documented symptoms, and later apologies from a neurologist and Mount Sinai Hospital. She says she started a Canadian Facebook support group, credits ivermectin from a Toronto doctor with saving her life, and urges the medical establishment to show compassion.
Speaker 2
0:02 So our next witness is Diane Spaulding. 0:07 Diane, will you take the Bible in your right hand, please? 0:15 Diane Spaulding, do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God? Speaker 2
0:25 Then I want to introduce you to the inquiry. 0:28 You're 61 now, which means you were 56 at the time of these events. 0:35 And you've got two children. 0:39 You now have to live with one of your sons, your oldest son. Speaker 1
0:44 I do live with my eldest son at the moment, yes. Speaker 2
0:48 You were a lab technician in health care. 0:51 You were very healthy. 0:52 You did biking, hiking, going for walks. 0:54 You like to travel. 0:56 You love to spend time with the grandkids. 0:58 Good health. Speaker 1
1:00 Fairly good health, yes. Speaker 2
1:01 And then on April 23rd, 2021, you took your first and only COVID vaccine, which was AstraZeneca. Speaker 1
1:10 That's correct. Speaker 2
1:10 Can you share with us what happened? Speaker 1
1:14 Yeah, so I decided I would, you know, do the right thing and, you know, get my shot. 1:22 So I headed off to the Rexall Pharmacy inside Mount Sinai Hospital and 1:29 I decided to take the AstraZeneca. 1:31 That was the one that was available at the rollout at that time for my age category. 1:37 So I actually was a little bit nervous because I had actually heard on the news about the vaccine-induced thrombosopenia that was happening. 1:47 But when I got to the pharmacy and I talked to the pharmacist, she said, 1:52 When I mentioned it, she said, no, that's extremely, extremely rare. 1:56 No worries. 1:57 It's safe and effective. 1:58 You have no issue. 1:59 You have nothing to worry about. 2:01 So, yeah. 2:02 So that's what I did. 2:04 I took it. 2:05 So. Speaker 2
2:07 And what happened? Speaker 1
2:09 So the next day I woke up and I was pretty sick. 2:13 Just, you know, like the flu. 2:15 You know, I had a fever, chills, body aches, pains. 2:19 just like you would with the flu. 2:21 And that lasted for about three days. 2:22 It wasn't bad for about three days. 2:26 But on the fifth day, I developed a bleed on my lower arm. 2:32 And that was alarming, especially after hearing about the thrombocypenia. 2:39 I was like, uh-oh. 2:41 So I thought, oh boy. 2:43 I said, okay, this isn't normal. 2:45 I better, you know, I'll go to Emerge. 2:48 I'll get my blood work done. 2:50 I'll see what my platelet count is because, you know, my platelet count actually has always been a little bit elevated. 2:57 No reason, just always a little bit elevated. 3:00 So it always had around five to 600. 3:05 So when I got there and I told them about it and they looked at it and they did blood work and it came back that my platelet count was just around four. 3:18 And I had my blood work done 3:22 about a month before that, and my platelet count was at 600. 3:26 And now it was at 400. 3:28 Now, 400 is actually within normal range. 3:34 So no red flags, no alarms went off. 3:37 But I said to them, look at, I normally have high platelets, you know, or elevated platelets. 3:45 So now they're being pulled down by 200. 3:49 So that would make sense that I have this 3:52 bleed on my lower arm. Speaker 2
3:54 But isn't 400 still like maybe it's in the normal range? Speaker 1
4:00 Well, I mean, it's within normal range. 4:04 But for me, I don't know because I naturally have elevated platelet counts. 4:12 So it was definitely pulled down. 4:13 It was definitely in two weeks or whatever it was or three weeks that I had my last blood work done by the doctor. 4:22 That was just a routine checkup. 4:24 But it got pulled down by 200. 4:27 I don't know if that's normal. 4:28 But, you know, seeing the bleed made me, you know, a little bit, you know, apprehensive. 4:36 Like it made me, you know, worry a little bit that, oh, no, you know, maybe my platelet count is, you know, dropping. 4:43 So anyway. 4:44 Okay. 4:45 They did the blood work. 4:47 I said to them, I said, I think, oh, and I had my arm was, I had a really bad rash on my arm. 4:54 It was, I think you had yours, but my arm was really swollen and red. 5:00 And anyway, they just said, oh, you've definitely had a really good reaction to the vaccine. 5:08 A good reaction, they called it. 5:14 And I said, well, 5:15 I said, you know, I don't really feel, you know, I mean, I've got this lower, I've got this bleed on my arm. 5:20 Like, do you want to give me some, like, intravenous immunoglobulin or something to tamper down the response? 5:27 And they looked at me like I had four heads. 5:29 Like, they just looked at me like, what are you talking about? 5:33 What's this IVIG you're talking about? 5:35 No idea. 5:37 And anyway, they said, well, you know, nothing we can do. 5:40 Sorry about your luck. 5:41 Sent me home. Speaker 2
5:43 Now, my understanding is you're also developing in your hands and legs. Speaker 1
5:49 Oh, yeah. 5:50 So it was about a week after that I started getting bruising. 5:54 And the bruising was, like, all over my body in areas you don't expect to get bruising. 6:01 And it was just everywhere. 6:02 I started getting bleeding ducts under my skin called petechiae, more bleeding spots there. 6:12 I started getting pins and needles in my hands and in my feet. 6:17 And that feeling of pins and needles was going up my arms and up my legs. 6:23 I didn't know what the heck was going on. Speaker 2
6:26 Can I just slow you down on that? 6:28 Let's say on your arms. 6:30 How far is this going up? Speaker 1
6:33 The pins and needles? 6:34 Yeah. 6:35 It was going up to about my elbow and then up to about my knees. Speaker 2
6:39 And when you say pins and needles, it's like 6:42 Most of us have like laid on an arm or something. Speaker 1
6:45 Exactly. 6:45 You fall asleep on your arm and you wake up and you're taking it out. 6:49 Like it's exactly like that. Speaker 2
6:51 Okay. 6:52 Which is really uncomfortable. Speaker 1
6:54 It's very uncomfortable. 6:55 And I just kept rubbing my arms and my legs and I'd say to my husband, why don't we go out for a walk and maybe, you know, but yeah, no, it continued. 7:06 Yeah. 7:06 So after that, my vision actually started getting blurry when we were going out for walks. 7:12 I couldn't see people's faces. 7:14 They were completely, couldn't see. 7:17 My vision was very, very blurry. Speaker 2
7:19 So let me just slow you there down again. 7:24 So you're out for a walk and like people are walking by and we, you know, intuitively look at their faces. 7:30 I think we subconsciously do an assessment of them. 7:34 It's a blurry. 7:36 Would you be able to recognize people you knew walking by? Speaker 1
7:40 No. 7:41 I kept saying to my husband, is it just me or do you see people's faces? 7:46 I can't see people's faces. 7:48 It was very strange. Speaker 2
7:52 I understand that you were also starting to get vibrations in your chest. Speaker 1
7:58 Yeah. 7:59 Then that started. 8:00 It felt like 8:02 It felt like a cell phone going off in my chest. 8:09 I started getting tremors in my right hand and in my legs. Speaker 2
8:16 Before we go there, I want to show some pictures about your skin. Speaker 2
8:20 Before we leave, David, can you pull up? Speaker 2
8:25 So can you walk us through these? Speaker 1
8:28 The first picture is a bleed. 8:29 That's the bleed that was on my lower arm when I went to emerge the first time. 8:36 The second picture, I had all these splinter hemorrhages under my nails. 8:42 That was all the bruising. 8:44 And that was my arm. 8:45 You can see the reaction on my arm. 8:50 And then just more bruising and bleeding. 8:51 Mm-hmm. Speaker 2
8:54 David, do you want to go to the next one? Speaker 1
8:57 Tell us about this. 9:00 Yeah, my skin was peeling. 9:04 It would just peel. 9:06 The skin would just peel off. Speaker 2
9:08 So you're not picking that up? Speaker 1
9:10 No, it would just peel. 9:12 My skin would just peel off. Speaker 2
9:14 Okay, and the next photograph? Speaker 1
9:18 Yeah, I don't know what that was. 9:20 It was on the back of my legs. 9:23 Okay. 9:24 It was actually purple. 9:26 So, yeah. Speaker 2
9:32 So it was more darker than the photograph is showing. Speaker 1
9:35 Yeah, it looked really purple, actually. 9:38 It was very purple. Speaker 2
9:41 Okay. 9:42 So I just wanted us to see those before we moved on to the tremors. 9:47 So do you want to tell us about the tremors? Speaker 1
9:51 Yeah. 9:52 Okay. 9:52 So anyways, yeah. 9:53 So I had, oh yeah. 9:55 And I had light and noise sensitivity. 9:56 That started. 9:59 And I just, I had to like close the blinds. 10:01 I couldn't handle any light at all. 10:04 Any bit of noise drove me crazy. 10:06 I had to be in complete darkness and no sound at all. 10:12 So I had that. 10:12 And then, and then, yeah. 10:14 So the tremor started in my right hand and in my, my lower legs. 10:21 And in my head, and that was very alarming to me because I was like, what the heck is going on? 10:28 Like, do I have Parkinson's now? 10:32 So it was very scary. Speaker 2
10:34 So again, let's just slow this down. 10:36 So your hands, like. Speaker 1
10:39 My one hand, the one that the injection went in. Speaker 2
10:43 It would just shake. Speaker 1
10:44 Yeah, it would. 10:45 Yeah, it would just, it was, yeah. Speaker 2
10:47 And you were not able to stop shaking. Speaker 1
10:52 Um, not really. 10:53 I mean. Speaker 1
10:55 I mean, if you held your hand in your other hand, you know, but you could still feel it on the inside. Speaker 2
11:01 And how long would this last for? Speaker 1
11:06 Just a few minutes. 11:07 Just a few minutes. 11:09 My head would bob. Speaker 2
11:11 So your head, when it would shake. Speaker 1
11:12 My head would bob. 11:13 Like, yeah, it would be bobbing. Speaker 2
11:15 And how long would that last when it started? Speaker 1
11:20 I don't, I don't, I don't actually remember. 11:22 I, you know, I, um, a few minutes, a few minutes at a time, probably. 11:29 Yeah. Speaker 2
11:29 What do you think is going on at this point and how are you reacting? 11:32 I think just how you. Speaker 1
11:34 Oh, I was terrified. 11:35 I was, I mean, the extreme fatigue started setting in and I actually spent three months in bed. 11:41 I could not get out of bed. 11:42 I, I, 11:44 I'd fall asleep and I'd wake up in the morning and I'd say to my husband, I didn't sleep. 11:48 Like, I didn't sleep. 11:52 And I had this rumble feeling when I was sitting down the one day on the couch. 12:03 It felt like an earthquake in my head. 12:04 Like it literally felt like an earthquake in my head. 12:09 And right after that, I had a drugged feeling. 12:14 Like somebody had drugged me and that has never gone away, the drug feeling. 12:21 I've had it ever since. 12:23 Nothing is clear in my head. 12:25 It's just like something stuffed inside my head and I'm drugged. Speaker 2
12:31 So you even have that feeling now? Speaker 2
12:35 So this is a permanent thing where you kind of feel like there's cotton or something stuck in your head and you're drugged. Speaker 1
12:43 Yes. 12:44 I'm just, yeah, yeah. 12:47 So, yeah, so I ended up spending the summer, I guess. 12:50 Most of the summer I spent in bed. 12:54 But during this time, I decided... 12:58 because I went back, actually, I went back to the hospital when the tremors started. 13:01 That's when I had that earthquake feeling in my head. 13:04 I actually went back to Mount Sinai and I said, you know, like, this is getting worse. 13:09 You know, I've got these pins and needles now and all these other symptoms, you know, it's definitely from, it's from the vaccine, you know, and they actually stuck me in this makeshift area and it had other vaccine injured people in it. 13:25 So when I got there, I'm like, 13:26 are you guys vaccine injured? 13:28 Why are they shoving us behind this curtain in this room? 13:36 And nobody was saying anything, but I knew. 13:38 But anyway, they did a CT scan, and it came back inconclusive. 13:42 There was nothing. 13:42 They couldn't see anything. 13:45 And they said, we think you have anxiety, and we'd like to send you for a psych consults. Speaker 2
13:54 Right. 13:54 So those pictures to me showed real anxiety, especially your hands peeling. 14:00 So I'm being facetious completely. Speaker 1
14:02 I understand. Speaker 2
14:04 That's what's so curious is you're showing physical symptoms and they're suggesting that it's anxiety. 14:13 How did that make you feel? Speaker 1
14:20 Angry. 14:20 I had a lot of emotions. 14:23 I mean... 14:25 It's really hard to go through all these symptoms and not know what is going on. 14:32 You don't have a diagnosis. 14:34 You can't move forward. 14:35 You don't know what's happening to you. 14:38 And there is nobody that believes that you've got something wrong with you. 14:46 It's anxiety. 14:48 You need to see a psychiatrist. Speaker 1
14:51 because i actually believed it i actually thought oh hey i guess yeah i've never had i've never had like anxiety like this in my life of course you're anxious who wouldn't be anxious you're going to the hospital with tremors and internal vibrations and all these other symptoms and what we're supposed to be happy about it like of course we're going to be anxious of course we're going to be scared 15:20 So yeah, okay, sure. 15:22 I was anxious, but you know, I also needed a site consult, so. Speaker 2
15:30 It's just interesting because most of us, some of us haven't gone through a serious health journey, but I think those that have and those that can imagine it, we kind of expect that our caregivers are gonna be very attentive, very sympathetic, because that's part of the healing and encouragement process 15:49 And that we would be confident that they're trying to figure out what's going on and then treating us to the best of their ability. 15:56 But you've been watching these proceedings and you're sharing the same thing is that that's not happening at all. 16:04 It's almost like they just want you to go away because they can't touch you. 16:08 And in your case, you got a letter from the Toronto Health that I found shocking because 16:18 You've got physical harm. 16:20 You are basically reporting being disabled. 16:23 And you get a letter from Toronto Public Health which tells you to get the second shot. 16:29 David, can you pull that up? 16:30 I don't know if we're going to be able to read it or not on this small screen. 16:33 Yes, we can. 16:35 So, yeah, so this is just the letter and the recommendations. 16:42 And this is from Sukana Balachandran. Speaker 1
16:45 That was my family doctor at the time. Speaker 2
16:47 Right. 16:48 So the recommendations, so the TPH is Toronto Public Health, right? Speaker 2
16:52 So TPH recommends this client receives a second dose of an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine as soon as possible, if not already done, especially in the context of the circulating Delta virus. 17:08 So you've basically become disabled. 17:13 You've got skin peeling off. 17:14 You're bruised all over the place. Speaker 1
17:16 And it says right there, brain fog, tremors, everything. 17:22 It lists all of my pins and needles. 17:26 I don't know why it says arthritis. 17:28 I don't know. 17:29 Whatever that is, I don't know. Speaker 2
17:30 Yeah, so the paragraph before. Speaker 1
17:32 Brain fog, tremors, and bruising. 17:34 They're saying, okay, she is experiencing severe unusual events and listing them. 17:41 And then the recommendation is, please step up and get another one. 17:45 Because you're not dead yet. Speaker 2
17:47 And we're seeing a pattern here. 17:49 I mean, another of the witnesses today got a letter in PEI from the public health office. 17:55 And I remember, you know, Drew yesterday, same thing. 17:58 Remember, she's basically disabled. 18:00 And three specialists got involved without her even asking if she should take her second shot. 18:06 And Alberta Public Health started calling her. 18:09 To get her second shot. Speaker 1
18:10 They were calling me too. 18:12 Yeah, they were. 18:12 Yeah, they were calling me too to get up and just like, yeah, that's not happening. 18:16 But my actually my family doctor was she was pretty good in the beginning. 18:21 She sent me to a neurologist, internal medicine. 18:24 Yeah, I went to so many specialists, rheumatologists. 18:32 I think I went to all of them. 18:34 Half of them just said, why are you here? 18:36 Why did your doctor send me? 18:39 The neurologist actually was very kind and said, you know, because I actually joined the CanCov long COVID clinic study and they did all kinds of blood work and they actually ended up diagnosing me with FND, which is. 18:54 A joke. 18:55 It's just like saying you have anxiety as far as I'm concerned. 18:58 But, you know, so when I got to the neurologist, he said, yeah, you do not have FNT. 19:08 You indeed have essential tremors. 19:11 And he said, I'm going to tell you right now, you're not the first person to come through my door with side effects from the vaccine. 19:19 And he said, I am so sorry this happened to you. 19:21 But we don't know what to do. Speaker 2
19:25 And this is Mount Sinai Hospital also apologized to you for not acknowledging vaccine injury. Speaker 1
19:36 Yeah, 20 months later, I got a call from Mount Sinai. 19:40 It was in the evening, and he said he was the head of the emergency department, the physician of the head of the, I can't remember what he said exactly, but I think that's what he said. 19:55 and he called to apologize. Speaker 2
19:57 And then my last thing is, you also have the experience of, because you started it, is basically starting a support group. 20:06 Right, so... Can you just tell us about that? 20:09 Because I think there's interest in the fact that vaccine injured in Canada have to band together and support themselves. Speaker 1
20:17 Yeah, so I guess it was in about, it was probably in 2022 that... 20:24 I created actually, I created a Canadian Facebook support group. 20:28 There were other ones before me and I actually, you know, being rejected by the healthcare system, I was desperate. 20:44 you know, figure out what was wrong with me. 20:45 And I went on social media and I actually found so many injured just like me, same symptoms. 20:55 A lot of us took the, in Canada anyway, took the AstraZeneca in April of 2021 and the lot numbers were the same. 21:07 And we all have the same symptoms. 21:10 That AstraZeneca vaccine was pulled a week later. 21:14 from the market. 21:16 So there's an elephant in the room there. 21:21 But anyway, so I found a lot of injured people just like me. 21:28 We became a family and we spoke every day to each other and we confided in each other and we cried and we, you know, just tried to find, you know, 21:44 Treatments, you know, we were doing, we had drawers and drawers full of every natural supplement you can think of. 21:52 When Dr. McCullough was talking about Brolane and Natto, and we had all that, you know, turmeric. 22:00 We had drawers of this stuff. 22:02 The problem was, is we didn't know how much to take when we were taking it. 22:10 We didn't know how long to take it for. 22:13 We had nobody following up and doing blood work for us. 22:17 So we'd start taking all these health, you know, all these supplements and everything. 22:22 And now what? 22:25 You know, so half the time we would start taking them and then we just throw them back in the drawer. 22:32 I do have to say that once I found Silent Survivors, that's one of the Canadian groups. 22:40 And Dallas, she's the one that heads it. 22:44 And she told me about a doctor. 22:46 Or she gave me information on where I could find this doctor in Toronto. 22:52 And I reached out to him. 22:54 And he got me on ivermectin. 22:59 And... 23:02 I believe he saved my life. 23:04 I believe he saved my life because I could not get out of bed. 23:09 My tremors were really bad. 23:11 And once I got on that ivermectin, my tremors went away. 23:20 Most of my symptoms started to go away after I took the ivermectin. 23:27 Um, unfortunately he couldn't follow up with me anymore because then he, he, um, the college was investigating him. 23:34 So, yeah. 23:40 Um, yeah. 23:41 So by the time I started to feel, um, better, I mean, other than this, this fog in my head and I have to constantly pace myself, like tomorrow I am going to be in bed after this. 23:55 Yeah, because I still get the fatigue. 24:00 I can't go to a jaw. 24:02 I can't do anything on my feet for more than four hours, and then that's it for me. 24:07 And then I'm on the couch, you know? 24:09 Like, I want to be able to play with my grandkids, you know? 24:17 And my father, you know, I really wanted to be able to spend a lot of time with my dad. 24:27 And so in the fall, around Christmas, well, just before Christmas, I was just starting to feel a little bit better. 24:34 And, you know, to be able to drive out and see my dad. 24:37 Well, not me drive, but I wasn't driving at that time. 24:41 But going to see my dad. 24:42 And he started just not feeling very good. 24:44 He said to me, you know, I've got this awful backache. 24:48 And that was probably in December and January. 24:51 You went to the hospital and you were full of cancer. 24:54 You died in February. Speaker 2
24:56 I'm so sorry. 24:58 Sorry to hear that about your dad. 25:01 So we have to move on to the next witness now. 25:05 Just time wise. 25:06 Um, thank you so much for coming. 25:10 I know that, um, you've been in touch with me and you were excited about coming and we're excited to have you. 25:16 And, um, 25:19 I know you voiced what difference is this going to make or what's going to happen. 25:25 None of us know that. Speaker 1
25:27 None of us know. Speaker 2
25:28 But I think we all know we've been changed by hearing stories like yours. 25:32 Diana, I also want to thank you for coming. Speaker 1
25:34 Thank you. 25:34 I just wanted to say one more little thing that, you know, like just for all the medical establishment, you know, try to have some compassion. 25:44 Compassion is, you know, the backbone of, 25:47 You know, you can't acknowledge suffering. Speaker 2
25:50 And it's just we do have to let you go or we'll have to tell somebody else not to testify. 25:55 Okay, thank you, Diane.