Hello.
I'll begin by explaining what I've been doing since the last time I testified. Directly as a result of the media attention I received the last time I testified, a lot of people have been reaching out to me. In this past year and a bit, I've talked to well over 100 veterans and civilians, not just from Canada but also the States, Australia, Ireland, England, and New Zealand.
What has emerged is that there's an actual pattern to the injury from those who've been poisoned by mefloquine. First and foremost, they have PTSD that is resistant to treatment. Second, they have gut issues, balance and dizziness issues, tinnitus, body temperature regulation issues, numbness and tingling in the extremities, sensitivity to light, and extreme, extreme difficulty in moderating moods. All of these injuries are indicative of a brain stem injury.
We have found that for the majority of these individuals, because of the degenerative nature of their injury, a lot of their severe symptoms are not apparent, if they're not identified early on in their career and the individuals are medically released, until post-release. A lot of their symptoms are manifesting in extreme ways that basically prevent them from accessing even basic health care.
I'll used Claude as an example. He has severe difficulty moderating his moods. He cannot even be in a crowded and busy doctor's office. He's unable to access basic Veterans Affairs services because of the nature of the injury from the mefloquine. He gets worked up around a lot of people. By the time he gets in to see the doctor, he's not able to articulate what his needs are because he's so worked up. If the doctor is very contrary, is not open to a suggestion on what possibly could be wrong with Claude, and recommends that Claude do neuropsychiatric medication or go see a psychiatrist or something like this, Claude gets really worked up.
I also had this problem. I fired I think five family doctors because they tried to push medications at me and tried to do the neuropsychiatric thing. I finally found a doctor who could actually do the paperwork and would listen to what I was saying.
This injury is part and parcel of this whole transition. We've poisoned probably well over.... We've given this drug to 40,000 Canadian soldiers. A lot of the studies are indicating that up to 74% of those people who have taken this drug have actually been injured by this drug.
To give you an example of that, one of our strongest civilian advocates committed suicide on January 2. She had reached out to me in the past because she was severely struggling with the severe depression associated with mefloquine poisoning. She constantly asked me how I was able to keep my head above water, how I was able to keep moving forward.
She didn't quite make it.
I'll leave it at that.