The story of how a B.C. man found his birth mother
After his adopted parents died, Dave Rogers set out to learn more about his birth mother. DNA results and a little help from friendly strangers would put him on a path to a small town in England.
A B.C. man, who was among the first Canadians approved for Canada's Vaccine Injury Support Program, says he is frustrated with the length of time it is taking to receive compensation.
Ross Wightman of Lake Country, B.C., was left partially paralysed after receiving a first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine in April 2021. Within the first few days of receiving the shot, he had developed severe pain in his lower back and hamstrings.
"And then 10 days after my shot, I ended up in the ER four times," he told CTV's Your Morning on Tuesday. "(It was) a bit of a mystery diagnosis originally, but the fourth time, I started presenting with facial paralysis and that's when my life really got flipped upside down."
Wightman was hospitalized for 67 days. He had developed Guillain-Barré Syndrome, a rare condition where the individual's immune system starts to attack the body's nerves. B.C.'s Centres for Disease Control says the likelihood of developing the condition after being vaccinated is around one in 700,000.
Wightman's application for the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program was approved in May. But since then, he still hasn't received any compensation. He said Health Canada still needs to approve his income replacement paperwork and expenses.
"It was very tedious and frustrating for the first probably eight months, just not being able to get constant communication or any sort of answers," Wightman said. "I'm still out hundreds of thousands of dollars and whatnot of monetary expenses over the last 16 months."
As of June 1, 2022, the program says it has received 774 claims of vaccine injury. Only eight have been approved and 71 have been deem inadmissible. There are also 553 claims in the process of collecting medical records while 23 are pending an assessment from a medical review board.
The program has not disclosed how much in financial support has been paid out, citing "privacy reason" given that "not all claimants that are approved have had their payment processed."
Prior to his diagnosis, Wightman had been a realtor and a commercial pilot. He says he lived an active lifestyle.
"I was in the gym five, six days a week. I hate to toot my own horn, but if you ask most people, they'd say I was one of the fitter people around and just felt that there was really nothing that I couldn't do," he said. "My life is very, very, very different. It's a far resemblance of just a short time ago."
Wightman says he has since made significant progress in his recovery and can walk again with the help of special braces for his legs, but said he still feels like "a fraction of the man" he used to be.
"(I'm) just trying to stay positive and still put in the work on this marathon I'm on and trying to keep my head high," he said. "I try and preoccupy my life with family and friends and recovery. That's some sort of therapy every day that I'm involved with."
After his adopted parents died, Dave Rogers set out to learn more about his birth mother. DNA results and a little help from friendly strangers would put him on a path to a small town in England.
A Montreal man is warning Tesla drivers about using the Smart Summon feature after his vehicle hit another in a parking lot.
Italy's mafia rarely dirties its hands with blood these days. Extortion rackets have gone out of fashion and murders are largely frowned upon by the godfathers.
The Israel-Hamas war has led to a spike in 'violent rhetoric' from 'extremist actors' that could prompt some in Canada to turn to violence, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service warns.
Russia plans to hold drills simulating the use of battlefield nuclear weapons, the Defense Ministry announced Monday, days after the Kremlin reacted angrily to comments by senior Western officials about the war in Ukraine and Moscow warned that tensions with the West are deepening.
As Canadians brace themselves for summer temperatures, forecasters say a weakening El Nino cycle doesn’t mean relief from the heat.
Actor Bernard Hill, who delivered a rousing cry before leading his people into battle in 'The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King' and went down with the ship as the captain in 'Titanic,' has died.
Police say it’s fortunate no one was injured or killed in a collision at North Vancouver’s Park and Tilford shopping centre Saturday evening that sent one vehicle careening into a flower shop and another into a set of concrete barriers outside a Winners store.
The Israeli army ordered some 100,000 Palestinians on Monday to begin evacuating from the southern city of Rafah, signaling that a long-promised ground invasion there could be imminent and further complicating efforts to broker a cease-fire in Gaza.
Eighty-two-year-old Susan Neufeldt and 90-year-old Ulrich Richter are no spring chickens, but their love blossomed over the weekend with their wedding at Pine View Manor just outside of Rosthern.
Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
A mother goose and her goslings caused a bit of a traffic jam on a busy stretch of the Trans-Canada Highway near Vancouver Saturday.
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.
Since 1932, Montreal's Henri Henri has been filled to the brim with every possible kind of hat, from newsboy caps to feathered fedoras.
Police in Oak Bay, B.C., had to close a stretch of road Sunday to help an elephant seal named Emerson get safely back into the water.