A mother has spoken out after her Covid-19 vaccine injury was finally diagnosed after years of chronic fatigue and excruciating nerve pain that doctors ruled out.
Ellie Sutton, from the Blue Mountains west of Sydney, told Daily Mail Australia that before receiving the AstraZeneca jabs in September 2021, she was “happier than ever”.
“I was at the top of my game, I had an active social life and I was fit and healthy,” the 34-year-old said.
‘I did a bodybuilding competition. I loved lifting weights in the gym.
‘I lived in the city and was always traveling around doing things. I went to classes, I went to music festivals. I experienced life in all its richness.
“I always believed vaccines were safe before, so when my employer ordered me to get vaccinated or lose my job, it seemed like a pretty easy decision.”
The AZ shots made her temporarily sick, but the Pfizer booster injected around April 2022 was very different.
“Not long after that, the whole right side of my body went numb,” Mrs Sutton said.
Ellie Sutton (pictured with her nephew) said her life has been one of debilitating pain and chronic fatigue since receiving two AstraZeneca Covid vaccines and a Pfizer booster dose.
It was not until she saw a doctor at a long Covid clinic in 2024 that Ms Sutton was diagnosed with a vaccine injury.
“I came to the ER thinking I was having a stroke and they told me it was probably just some type of migraine and to go home.”
He said his health quickly began to decline.
“I was sitting with my partner of just a few months and complained of a strange tingling sensation in a small area of my arm,” Mrs Sutton said.
‘He said it was probably a strained muscle that would heal quickly.
“Instead, over the next few weeks, the tingling got worse and slowly spread down my entire arm, then up my upper back, then down my back, legs, feet, hands, and face until my entire body was covered and it was incredibly painful,” Ms. Sutton said.
‘The nerve pain progressed to painful spasticity and ‘banding’ where areas of muscle in my body would tense as hard as a rock, tighten and stay that way for a few minutes or hours.
‘I started having internal tremors, migraines, muscle twitching, heart palpitations, food sensitivities, debilitating chronic fatigue, muscle weakness and severe vertigo.
Ms Sutton said that during bad periods “even clothes that touch my skin cause me pain”.
Ms Sutton said what was infuriating was that doctors could not tell her what was wrong or dismissed her symptoms as “anxiety” (pictured undergoing an EGG).
‘Simply going from sitting to standing would skyrocket my heart rate to over 200bpm. I started losing drastic amounts of weight very quickly until I weighed only 48kg.
“Every night I went to sleep I really did so with the fear of not waking up.”
Sutton said the cause of his rapidly deteriorating health remained a mystery.
Doctors were baffled or downplayed the symptoms as “anxiety.”
“We saw 40 doctors, countless GPs, neurologists, immunologists, cardiologists, haematologists and rheumatologists,” Ms Sutton said.
“They kept firing me and gaslighting me.
“I had been so conditioned by the narrative that we were sold about the safety of the vaccine, that it never once occurred to me that it could be the culprit.”
Due to his series of medical conditions, Sutton had to leave his job in August 2022. Finally, two years later, in August. In 2024, a doctor at the Covid clinic told him that he had suffered a vaccine injury, which a neurologist also confirmed.
“She has been reviewed by specialists, including a cardiologist, a rheumatologist, an immunologist, and several neurologists, without identifying any alternative diagnoses,” wrote Dr. Elizabeth Akins, of the Nineteenth Clinic’s long-running COVID clinic.
“He was diagnosed with monophasic transverse myelitis by neurologist Dr Sophie Chatterton, and it is suspected to be related to the Covid-19 vaccine given the time course of the vaccine and symptoms,” Dr Akins said.
Transverse myelitis is inflammation of both sides of a section of the spinal cord. It damages the insulating material that covers the fibers of nerve cells, interrupting the messages that the spinal cord sends throughout the body.
It may cause pain, muscle weakness, paralysis, sensory problems, or bladder and bowel dysfunction.
Sutton said he recently found respite after coming out “from a really dark place” where he spent months in agony.
Ms Sutton said before she was hit with Covid she was at the top of her game and enjoying life to the fullest.
With each debilitating period of intense nerve pain, Sutton said he sees his body lose more function.
“I finally have a method to control my pain,” he said.
‘But I continue to get worse, I fear that one day I will lose the ability to walk.
‘I can no longer hold a toothbrush to brush my teeth. It’s like my cells can no longer produce energy.
‘I’m about to faint. It almost feels like you’re dying.
‘Even just talking means I have to sleep for hours. I use a wheelchair when I leave the house because otherwise I will collapse.’
The mother of two daughters said she at times felt so overwhelmed by grief and so desperate that she considered euthanasia, but she kept going for her children.
He asked that the victims of the Covid vaccine be heard, believed and supported.
“We’re real people,” he said.
‘We are mothers, sisters, daughters, fathers, brothers and sons who have been living the most difficult years of their lives.’
AstraZeneca and Pfizer have been contacted for comment.
