[00:00:00]

Wayne Lenhardt

Okay, Mr. Konrad, could you give us your full name, please, and then spell it for us. And then I’ll do an oath with you.

Adam Konrad

My name is Adam Konrad, spelled A-D-A-M K-O-N-R-A-D.

Wayne Lenhardt

Do you promise to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth in your testimony today?

Adam Konrad

I do.

Wayne Lenhardt

First off, where do you live and what do you do for a living?

Adam Konrad

I live here in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, and we run a fishing guiding business on Lake Diefenbaker. We have a lodge and I’m part owner with my wife and my brother. And so, basically, a fishing guide, and I’m a family man.

Wayne Lenhardt

AV people, are you able to hear him? Oh, there we go.

Adam Konrad

Sorry, I’ll speak up.

Wayne Lenhardt

Okay. So you own a lodge at Lake Diefenbaker and you basically take clients fishing. Is that fair?

Adam Konrad

Yes.

Wayne Lenhardt

And you’ve done this for a few years, have you?

Adam Konrad

We started guiding part-time in 2008. We got pretty recognized in the fishing industry in 2007. I caught a world-record rainbow trout at Lake Diefenbaker. During that time, I was apprenticing as a mechanic and became a journeyman mechanic, 15 years. I worked through a few dealerships here in Saskatoon.

Wayne Lenhardt

Okay, so you’ve done it for a while.

Adam Konrad

Yeah, so, three years full-time. Ever since COVID came— In 2020, when COVID came I got laid off as a mechanic and I started guiding more. It just kind of went from there and we got really busy and I never turned back.

Wayne Lenhardt

Your season starts in mid-May, am I correct?

Adam Konrad

May 5th is opening day.

Wayne Lenhardt

Okay. So, in April 2021, you got your first shot of Pfizer, correct?

Adam Konrad

Yeah, I believe it was April 23rd. My wife and I went in and got our first shots of Pfizer.

Wayne Lenhardt

And what happened next?

Adam Konrad

We started guiding May 5th, 2021. And, I don’t know, it must have been about 10 days after my shot, my heart was feeling a little weird. I had no idea why it was feeling weird. I didn’t even think anything of it; we’ve never had any heart issues in our family.

It was May 16th.  I had just finished a day of guiding on the lake and I was back at Lake Diefenbaker. I was just staying in an RV. And I just finished watching a movie at about 10 o’clock. And I got up to get a drink of water and then go to bed. When I got up, my heart started feeling weird. It was pounding really hard. And I really had no idea what was going on. But all of a sudden, I could feel a really big pounding in my chest, so I called a friend who came over. I called a lady; she said I should take Aspirin because I might be having a heart attack. So I chewed Aspirin as quick as I could. A friend came over and put an Apple Watch on me. And there was a nurse that was nearby that came over and took my rhythm.

My heart actually went out of rhythm and my heart was beating at about 240 beats a minute.

Do you want me to continue with the story?

Wayne Lenhardt

Yep, sure.

Adam Konrad

Okay. So basically, I thought I was having a heart attack. I was having a heart attack, in my opinion. Got rushed to the Outlook Hospital. Felt like a lifetime to get there. I was seeing stars and passing out. And in the Outlook Hospital, my wife got there from Saskatoon; she drove in from Saskatoon. They put the maximum dose of metoprolol in me to try to control my heart. My heart rate did not come down. It was sitting 230, 240 beats a minute and out of rhythm. Basically, my chest felt like it was exploding. I was saying my goodbyes to my family.

They had to call an ambulance to ambulance me to Saskatoon.

[00:05:00]

During my ambulance ride there, laying in the ambulance, there’s one lady that was— I bet she was in her mid-30s. She asked me what shot I got. And I had no idea why she would ask me that, I still didn’t know what was going on. Basically, I was having a heart attack.

And I told her I had the Pfizer shot. And she asked how long ago I had it. I said, “about two weeks ago.” And she said, “Oh.” I said, “So, why do you ask me that?” She said, “Well, I had it.” Sometime after, her heart rate increased significantly and didn’t come down for over a week, she said. And I still didn’t know what was going on. I really didn’t care when I was feeling like that.

They cardioverted me in Saskatoon—put me to sleep, cardioverted me—and I woke up and my heart was back in rhythm. My heart was at 240 beats a minute for eight-and-a-half hours. And I do have heart damage now due to that. I was prescribed blood thinners. The doctors basically said, “Stop drinking so much caffeine. It was probably a coincidence that just happened.”

So I just continued with my life. I was on blood thinners. I had to take four or five days off of work and cancel trips to rest up. I felt like I had just ran a marathon. Two weeks later I had another attack at night. And my friend was there with me, rushed me into the hospital. And you know, it just continues after that.

Basically, once a month, it was like clockwork: I would wake up at two in the morning, sleeping, and my heart would just be pounding out of my chest. I’d stand up and then my heart would go out of rhythm and peak out at 200 plus beats a minute. This lasted seven months. I think I had eight or nine attacks. I was on the maximum dose of metoprolol and diltiazem to try to get my heart rate down. Mentally just broken, because—ever have heart issues like that and it happens at night, you know that your sleep goes to zero pretty much, after.

Moving forward to October 1st, when they put the mandates in where, in order for you to buy alcohol you had to be fully vaccinated. My father, Otto, he had been an alcoholic for 30 years and he was very set against the vaccines. He knew what happened to me. And my sister in Toronto, they had friends and were pushing him not to get the shots.

He was set on not getting any shots. He was living alone in a condo in Saskatoon. But when you take alcohol away from an alcoholic, they’re going to do what needs to be done to get their alcohol, so—

On October 15th, I called my dad and I asked how he was doing and he said he’s doing good. I said, “Well, how are you getting your alcohol, dad?” He said, “Well, I talked to my doctor and he said it was okay for me to get the shots.” I said, “Well, okay. Well, that’s your decision.” Everybody makes their own decisions in life and, once your decision is made, it is what it is. I’m a person that lets people—I learn from people and my father made the decision and it was his. I said, “Okay, well, how are you feeling?” “I feel good.”

Fast forward to October 26th. I knew he was getting his shot again in late October, I didn’t know when. My brother had called me from Spruce Grove—I’m actually an identical twin; there’s two of me. He called me and he said, “I just talked to Dad.” It was 6 p.m. on October 26th. And he said, “He just didn’t sound right.” I said, “What do you mean he didn’t sound right?” He said, “He sounds like he has dementia. He couldn’t keep track of his conversation. He was asking me over and over again”— why Sean called him, when my dad called him.

I just told Sean, “He’s probably drunk.” He said, “Well, he didn’t seem drunk. He just seemed different.” I said, “Well, whatever.” I was dealing with my family, my issues, business, my heart. I had just talked to my dad on the 25th, so I didn’t really think anything of it.

November 1st was my last day of guiding for the year, as the weather came in. I finished a day of guiding November 1st.

[00:10:00]

I drove in from Lake Diefenbaker. I got home at 9:30. I was happy the season was over. I was in a good mood. I was doing great. I sit down at 10:30 and my heart flips out of rhythm again. And I just was mentally broken, you know. What do you do? You feel helpless.

Hospital again. Again, cardioverted back into rhythm. And I laid in bed at home for four or five days and recuperated again.

And on November 6th, I was wondering why my dad hadn’t called me. I called his phone and it went straight to voicemail. And it never goes to voicemail because he always answers on his first and second call. He doesn’t have much to do and, when I call him, he’s always excited to talk. I knew that something was wrong, so I kind of blacked out. My wife took over and—excuse me—and since he was in a condo, we didn’t want to go in. We called the police and they did a wellness check. And they found him laying on his floor, dead.

I’ll just fast forward. They pegged his death to October 27th or 28th. He had been laying on his condo floor for over 10 days, dead and decomposing. They recommended me not to look at the body, so, I didn’t. We never did. After I was just out of the hospital, too. You got to stay strong and you got to keep moving forward, right?

So we made preparations. We weren’t allowed into the condo. About a week later, I feel like it was November 10th, things were very blurry at that time. Walked into the apartment and you could smell the smell: You’d never get rid of that. I reached out and his wallet was on the countertop. I pulled his wallet out. And in his wallet, I pulled out a vaccination card that said, “Congratulations, you’re now fully vaccinated.”

After that, I just blacked out. And broke. And that’s when I—

Wayne Lenhardt

Do you have any formal cause of death on your father?

Adam Konrad

No. They said, “We can try to do an autopsy, but since he had been passed for such time, it would be difficult.” And we just opted not to. So they just wrote it off as natural causes.

Wayne Lenhardt

Okay. And are you still having your monthly attacks?

Adam Konrad

No. Fast forward from the November, I was scheduled for a cardiac ablation. I had a cardiac ablation performed on February 1st of 2001. And ever since that, once my heart healed up a month or two later, I was having slight palpitations. But ever since that, my heart has stayed in rhythm now.

Wayne Lenhardt

And I’m assuming you have not had your second Pfizer shot.

Adam Konrad

No. About that, though: I did call and I sent in an adverse reaction request for me and one for my father.

I did get a call back, eventually. The lady was kind of explaining to me at the start that maybe I had a problem with an mNRA or something. I have no idea. And she said maybe that, “I recommend getting the Johnson & Johnson shot.” And then I said, “Well, okay.” And then, by the end of the conversation, she told me that it was a coincidence. And that if I hadn’t got the Pfizer shot, I would have been worse off. And I told her, “What’s worse off than almost dying? I’d rather not take that chance.”

So she says that it’s a coincidence but before, she said it could be from an mNRA.

Again, I don’t study anything: I’m a fisherman and a mechanic. It’s just weird how they would consider that a coincidence. Two weeks after a shot, I have a heart attack. I’m a healthy person. I played soccer my whole life. I eat healthy. I do drink alcohol—I don’t anymore.

[00:15:00]

I stopped, actually. After my first attack, I stopped alcohol. But nothing seemed to help.

Anyway, it’s just weird how they can write that off as a coincidence. And my dad’s death as natural causes, even though I pushed and tried to call people, and nobody really seemed to care.

Wayne Lenhardt

Is there anything you think the government, or anyone in this scenario, should have done better in your opinion?

Adam Konrad

You know, I’m not a professional. I know that COVID is out there. I know that there are people that have died from COVID.

For me the only thing that I live my life is: If I’m doing something and it’s not working, I wouldn’t continue doing it. Like, if I’m a fisherman and I go to a spot and there’s no water in that spot, why would I fish there? If it’s not working, why do you continue doing it? Like, nobody’s taken accountability for anything. And, it’s just— Nobody’s ever provided me answers to anything. It almost seems like they really just don’t care. They make their decisions and they’re sticking to it, but things aren’t working out.

In my opinion, if something’s not working out, why don’t you pull back and do more research on things instead of injuring people over and over again? It just doesn’t make sense.

Wayne Lenhardt

Are there any questions from the commissioners for the witness? Anyone?

Okay. On behalf of the National Citizens Inquiry, thank you very much for coming and giving us your testimony today.

Adam Konrad

Thank you.

Wayne Lenhardt

Thank you.

[00:16:58]

Final Review and Approval: Jodi Bruhn, August 21, 2023.

The evidence offered in this transcript is a true and faithful record of witness testimony given during the National Citizens Inquiry (NCI) hearings. The transcript was prepared by members of a team of volunteers using an “intelligent verbatim” transcription method.

For further information on the transcription process, method, and team, see the NCI website: https://nationalcitizensinquiry.ca/about-these-transcripts/

Summary

Adam Konrad got his first Pfizer shot in Saskatoon on April 23, 2021. Approximately 10 days after that Adam says his heart started to feel strange but he paid little attention to it at the time as he runs a fishing lodge and it was just the start of his busy season. Then, on May 16^th in the evening, he had tremendous pounding in his chest and his heart was out of rhythm so he went to hospital where it was determined his heartrate was 230-240 beats per minute. He said his goodbyes to his family as he thought he was dying.

Despite being on the maximum dosage of drugs for his heart problem, the attacks continued for months. In November of 2021 Adam had a cardiac ablation to reset his heart rhythm which seems to be working.

During the summer, while Adam was suffering from his heart problems, his father passed away after having received two shots. Adam tried to have adverse reactions registered for both himself and his father but was refused. He was told it was just coincidence.