A nurse who ignored the pleas of her ‘conspiracist theorist’ family to refuse the Covid vaccine has come to regret it after she was left hospitalised following the jab.
Nurse Haylee Horton, 45, was diagnosed with a ‘post-vaccination immune reaction’ by Perth’s Peel Health Campus hospital after a five-day stay.
Ms Haylee resumed nursing in late 2021 after maternity leave but required a Covid vaccination to do so, as part of Western Australia’s mandates at the time.
However four relatives were vocal in their opposition to the jab.
‘They begged me not to have it, my auntie in particular,’ Ms Horton told Daily Mail Australia.
‘At the time, they all sounded bats*** crazy to be honest. We just about had a family fallout. I thought they were all nuts, I honestly did.’
Perth nurse Haylee Horton, 45, says she quickly came to regret her decision to get the Covid jab after a immunological reaction to the vaccine left her fighting for life in hospital
On October 11, 2021 Ms Horton asked her GP for his advice on the Covid vaccine.
He told her she was at a higher risk from contracting Covid due to her underlying multiple sclerosis, which has been held in check by six-monthly infusions of an autoimmune medication since being diagnosed in 2014.
‘I have never had a problem with any other vaccine,’ Mr Horton said.
‘As nurses you have to have all these sorts of jabs.’
Based on her doctor’s advice, Ms. Horton received a Pfizer vaccine at a local medical practice in southwest Perth.
Ms Horton spent five days in hospital shortly after having her second Pfizer vaccine and was diagnosed with a post vaccine immune reaction
For the next two days, Ms Horton said she felt ‘pretty rubbish’ and was fatigued.
However, she put it down to having a young daughter who was a magnet for bringing viruses into the household.
Ms Horton had her second Pfizer jab on November 12.
The following weekend, Ms Horton was hosting a joint birthday party for herself and her daughter, when she burnt her tongue on some asparagus.
‘[The burn] turned into a massive ulcer on my tongue,’ she said.
She woke the following morning with a bad headache, sore throat and nausea, forcing her to stay in bed.
The next day she began vomiting, shaking from fevers and suffering a ‘pounding headache’.
On November 17 a family friend took Ms Horton to emergency at Perth’s Peel Health Campus while her husband looked after their one-year-old baby.
Eventually a doctor told Ms Horton she was neutropenic, which means she was severely down on the white blood cells that fight infections.
‘It dawned on me just how sick I was and how dangerous it may have been for me to be left in an open ward with such a compromised immune system,’ Ms Horton said.
The Perth nurse has ‘never had a problem with any other vaccine’ before she got a Covid jab
After receiving antibiotics overnight, Ms. Horton’s white blood cell count improved significantly, approaching normal levels, but her neutrophil levels remained low.
A doctor wanted to send Ms Horton home but she told him she still felt ‘dreadful’.
‘Then I told him that I had a sore stomach and when he touched it I nearly went through the roof,’ she said.
‘He ordered an ultrasound and it revealed acute cholecystitis (inflammation of the gall bladder).’
This led to a further four nights in hospital, where Ms Horton was given antibiotics and pain relief.
She was finally discharged, and her discharge summary stated she had suffered a ‘post-vaccination immune reaction.’
Ms Horton’s health went quickly downhill after she got her second Pfizer Covid vaccine leading her to spend five days in hospital (stock image)
Despite getting a letter from an neurology professor that she had a life-threatening vaccine reaction Ms Horton was told she still needed a third jab to nurse again
Ms Horton was told she would still need a third Covid vaccine to work as a nurse again due to the state’s strict vaccine mandates at the time.
She applied for an exemption from that requirement, providing a letter from a neurology professor that stated she had ‘a documented adverse reaction to both her first and second Pfizer coronavirus (vaccines) … leading to a 6-day hospital admission with potentially life-threatening neutropina’.
‘It is medically recognised that neutropenia can be a complication of the Pfizer vaccination … there is a significant risk of neutropenia should a further coronavirus (vaccine) be given,’ the letter stated.
However she was not provided with an exemption, and was forced out of her job.
Ms Horton said while conditions such as myocarditis and pericarditis were well documented as adverse effects from the Covid vaccine, other rarer reactions like hers are ‘probably going unrecognised’.
‘There needs to be a full inquiry into the vaccines and acknowledgment of all the people who have suffered over the past three years,’ Ms Horton said.
‘Thankfully mine has resolved but many are suffering devastating consequences.’
Peel Campus hospital has been contacted for comment but has not confirmed whether they reported Ms Horton as an adverse vaccine reaction to medical watchdog the Therapeutic Goods Administration.