Witnesses
EN
Allison Inquiry | Nicole Sedore | Day 4 September 11th, 2026
A 50-year-old Alberta community support worker and elite masters swimmer describes a swollen hand within days of her Pfizer shot, taken under pressure to keep her job, then a deep vein clot left undiagnosed for eight months and a 10-millimetre brain aneurysm. She describes surgery, an aneurysm now called inoperable, and denied disability and compensation claims.
Nicole Sedore, 50, was 45, a single mother of two and a full-time community support worker at a women's shelter in Alberta, and a masters swimmer and runner who took no medications. She says she received Pfizer on April 23, 2021 after emails warned she would lose her job and after her sons' hospital doctors urged vaccination, and that she was the family's breadwinner. Within days, she says, her hand swelled to about three times its normal size. She describes three clinic visits, an ultrasound that stopped before her armpit, prednisone, and advice to raise her hand and wear a compression sleeve, until a family doctor and specialist ordered a scan. On January 30, 2022, she says she was told she had a massive blood clot under her armpit that had gone undiagnosed for about eight months, and a 10-millimetre brain aneurysm. A neurosurgeon declined to operate because of its location, and a vascular neurosurgeon placed 13 coils and a stent on April 19, 2022. She says the residual aneurysm has since grown twice, that it is now considered too dangerous to operate on and is being monitored, and that she lives with head pressure, migraines and the risk that it could burst. Sedore describes crying every day, planning for her sons' care if she dies, financial insecurity, her parents housing her family, being fearful of swimming alone, and paying $90 a month for a blood thinner. She says her compensation claim was denied and is under appeal, and that her disability and mental health benefits were also denied. She keeps working despite her doctors' advice. MPs thank her for travelling far to testify.
Nicole Sedore, 50, was 45, a single mother of two and a full-time community support worker at a women's shelter in Alberta, and a masters swimmer and runner who took no medications. She says she received Pfizer on April 23, 2021 after emails warned she would lose her job and after her sons' hospital doctors urged vaccination, and that she was the family's breadwinner. Within days, she says, her hand swelled to about three times its normal size. She describes three clinic visits, an ultrasound that stopped before her armpit, prednisone, and advice to raise her hand and wear a compression sleeve, until a family doctor and specialist ordered a scan. On January 30, 2022, she says she was told she had a massive blood clot under her armpit that had gone undiagnosed for about eight months, and a 10-millimetre brain aneurysm. A neurosurgeon declined to operate because of its location, and a vascular neurosurgeon placed 13 coils and a stent on April 19, 2022. She says the residual aneurysm has since grown twice, that it is now considered too dangerous to operate on and is being monitored, and that she lives with head pressure, migraines and the risk that it could burst. Sedore describes crying every day, planning for her sons' care if she dies, financial insecurity, her parents housing her family, being fearful of swimming alone, and paying $90 a month for a blood thinner. She says her compensation claim was denied and is under appeal, and that her disability and mental health benefits were also denied. She keeps working despite her doctors' advice. MPs thank her for travelling far to testify.
