Scott Gorry was a “larger-than-life” son, brother, and husband who was required to take the COVID-19 vaccine to maintain his job as a parliamentary aide, a decision that ultimately cost him his life, his sister testified before an inquiry in Ottawa on Sept. 10.
“He was … a friendly giant. He would wrap you in stories for hours. And he just loved life,” Dr. Crystal Luchkiw told the Allison Inquiry, adding that being a father to two kids was Gorry’s “pride and joy.”
“We were inseparable. Unconditional love. No questions. [We] always had each other’s backs.”
Gorry was 48 when he died on July 4. He had worked as an aide to Conservative MP Blaine Calkins, who also attended the hearing.
Luchkiw, a palliative care doctor whose medical licence has been suspended since 2022 after she issued vaccine exemptions, recalled discussing the vaccine with Gorry in April 2021.
Parliament’s COVID-19 vaccine requirement for MPs and other people entering the House of Commons precinct was announced on Oct. 19, 2021, and took effect Nov. 22, 2021. However, the House discussed the vaccination of federal employees and other priority groups in early 2021.
Gorry ultimately took it in April to keep his job. About a month later, he called Luchkiw after passing out while cooking, his sister said. She suspected a heart problem and urged him to have the hospital test for myocarditis.
“When he got to the hospital … they would not have a look because it was ‘highly unlikely,’” she said. “That was the term that was used a lot.”
Six weeks later, Gorry had an echocardiogram and asked his doctor whether he should receive a second dose after the siblings heard toxicity could increase with a second shot, Luchkiw said. The doctor told him he should take it, she added.
Gorry had a healthy heart before the first vaccine, based on tests he underwent in 2019, she said. But the 2021 echocardiogram showed significant heart impairment, she said.
His health deteriorated further on Sept. 10, 2021, after he finished playing recreational baseball and stayed to scorekeep the next game, Luchkiw said. Based on testimony from those who helped him that day, Luchkiw said, Gorry turned grey, slumped over, and fell unconscious without a heartbeat.
After he was revived, paramedics took him to hospital, where doctors diagnosed him with “very severe myocarditis” and found his heart was functioning at only 10 percent, she said. He required a pacemaker.
“That kind of injury and toxicity to biological tissue—there’s permanent damage,” Luchkiw said.
Gorry eventually returned home and tried to rebuild his life while caring for his children and working with Calkins on Parliament Hill, but he never returned to normal activity.
He was accepted into the vaccine injury program and received compensation, but Luchkiw said it was insufficient, describing it as “shekels for his sacrifice.”
Gorry suffered repeated episodes of ventricular tachycardia that activated his pacemaker, including 31 times in a row. His kidneys eventually began failing, and the family learned he needed a heart transplant.
Luchkiw said Gorry was treated “extremely disrespectfully” by the healthcare system and experienced discrimination during his health journey. Doctors ultimately denied him a transplant, citing his weight, frailty, and inability to participate in cardiac rehabilitation.
In May, Gorry visited Luchkiw and her family in Barrie, Ont., knowing he was “in big trouble,” she said. He was hospitalized there after doctors found he was retaining fluid because of his failing kidneys, she added.
He was later transferred to Toronto General Hospital, where doctors took the “most aggressive measures” possible to save him, she said. But they told Gorry a transplant was likely futile because the blood vessels connecting to his heart were heavily damaged, Luchkiw said.
Gorry eventually went into palliative care, a decision Luchkiw helped him choose.
“I don’t know if you can imagine how difficult that was and what that felt like,” she said.
‘Very Full of Life’
Adam Burgess testified about his sister Kristy, whom he described as active and “very full of life.”
Kristy received her second vaccine dose on April 12, 2021, Burgess said. She had been living near Whitehorse, Yukon, and collapsed in a bathroom six days later before being taken to hospital and later flown to Vancouver, he said.
Burgess said his sister died of an intracranial hemorrhage, and doctors said its connection with the COVID vaccine was “inconclusive.”
“I willingly took the vaccine just like my sister did because I believed in our institutions and I believed in the people we’ve trusted and paid to keep us safe,” he said. “And I no longer have that kind of trust in anything that they do.”
Fire Rescue Officer
Carol Messenger, 58, worked with the Vancouver Fire Rescue Service for 22 years and was preparing for retirement when she received her first mandated vaccine in April 2021, followed by a second dose in June.
Vancouver required all city employees to be fully vaccinated by Dec. 6, 2021.
On July 18, she lost feeling from her waist down, she testified. Doctors later found “a very large” lesion in her spine, she said.
Messenger said she remains partially paralyzed and experiences severe muscle spasms, temperature-regulation problems, and loss of sensation below her waist.
Despite her ongoing injuries, Messenger said she is about 90 percent recovered and remains optimistic about her life.
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