Cynthia Abbott

In late February he came home from a walk exhausted. He knew he had been urinating not as frequently, but that wasn't unusual as he had a bit of an enlarged prostate so had been a "start and stop" urinater for a few years. But in August, the day he took the Pfizer BOOSTER and the flu shot that same day at his physical (encouraged by his doctor) his creatinine level was 1.0. When we went to the doctor in early March (after a previous doctor visit where he complained of fatigue, nauseous feeling and headaches and was given only anti nausea medicine) his creatinine level was almost 12! He had had no kidney pains at all. We rushed him to Duke hospital, not even thinking about the booster slowly shutting down his kidneys. When the doctors looked at his record, they said, this is sudden onset kidney failure as his level had been 1.0 in Aug. We had noticed he was gaining weight and his clothes were tighter so he had begun dieting and walking even more. In Feb he weighed 252 and two weeks later he weighed 284! At Duke, a kidney biopsy revealed that a medication had caused the sudden shutdown. Keep in mind, at that physical his four meds he'd been on for several years had had NO effect on his kidney. The only medicine he had taken other than his usual four, were the booster and the flu shot. He had had several flu shots for years with no reaction. He started dialysis in the hospital. A team of Duke nephrologists were determined to figure this out, but after the biopsy which they had originally told us should also reveal which med shut his kidneys down, they began to act like they did not and could not know what led to the shut down. He was released and started dialysis in our town. He tried to continue walking, but dialysis just drained him. By May he started with a strange upper back pain and we attributed that to sitting so much in the chair at dialysis or maybe the port was causing the issue. The pain in his upper back went down and became like sciatica. Before we knew it he was numb in both legs and is now paralyzed! He has both end stage kidney failure and paralysis! We are just desperate and feel this was the booster that did this, or a combination of the booster and the flu shot! He is now in a rehab facility starting with another stay at Duke with a team of neurologists working on him. They were very interested and seemed anxious to help, but as soon as we brought up the booster they backed off, called it a bad case of sciatica and released him to a local rehab where he is today and will be released any day and we have no options but a nursing home. His PT at this rehab listened to us about the booster and just nodded. She told us, "THIS is NOT sciatica!" The nerve roots of his L4 and L5 are inflamed (like his kidneys) but no one knows why. They are saying they have done all they can. We are desperate for a second opinion or someone to help us. His vitals are perfect now as he is 100 pounds lighter...so we can't even get him into a hospital for a second opinion as these issues are old. The muscle waste in his lower extremities is just awful making PT very useless almost. But he is still himself and wants help!!! He wishes he had never taken those shots on that day and we are desperate for answers!!!