Shawn Buckley
Our next, I’ll say, witnesses. We’re going to have two people at the witness stand. We have Richard Fehr, and we have Richard’s mother, Doreen Fehr. And, Richard, I’ll start with you. I need to swear both of you in.

There’s one mic, so I’ll ask, you know, you put your face to the mic. And Richard, I’m going to be asking you questions first, so after I swear your mother, just move the mic so it’s close to you, and then we’ll move it back when I start asking Doreen questions. But, Richard, do you promise to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?

Richard Fehr
Yes.

Shawn Buckley
Thank you. And can you state your full name for the record and spell your first and last name?

Richard Fehr
Richard Neil Fehr. R-I-C-H-A-R-D F-E-H-R

Shawn Buckley
And Doreen, do you promise to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?

Doreen Fehr
I do.

Shawn Buckley
And will you please state your full name for the record, spelling your first and your last name?

Doreen Fehr
Doreen. D-O-R-E-E-N. Fehr. F-E-H-R

Shawn Buckley
Okay, so, Richard, you want to move the mic right up to you, because I’m going to be asking you questions first, and we need our sound good. And I see we got an AV person going to help you out there. So just leading you a little bit about your personal background. But you are 43 years old?

Richard Fehr
Yes.

Shawn Buckley
And you are married. Your wife’s name is Andrea.

Richard Fehr
Yes.

Shawn Buckley
You have two boys, Crosby, who is 13, and Kessler, who is 7?

Richard Fehr
Yes.

Shawn Buckley
You are by profession a dairy farmer. I appreciate you’re on disability right now, but you work at Rayner Dairy and Teaching Facility, which is a dairy outfit run by the University of Saskatchewan for teaching.

Richard Fehr
Yes.

Shawn Buckley
And you were there 17 years before what we’re about to talk about.

Richard Fehr
Yes.

Shawn Buckley
And so you’ve done all the, you know, the milking and the bedding and all of that, and then you moved on to more maintenance things, and—

Richard Fehr
Yes.

Shawn Buckley
So now you would describe yourself pre-COVID as very healthy.

Richard Fehr
Yes.

Shawn Buckley
Okay. And your job, it was a full time job. Did the family depend on that for its finances?

Richard Fehr
Yes, they did.

Shawn Buckley
Okay. And that includes the University had a pretty good benefits package?

Richard Fehr
Yes.

Shawn Buckley
And why was that significant to your family?

Richard Fehr
Because my wife suffers from depression.

Shawn Buckley
Okay. And you rely on the benefits package for a lot of help.

Richard Fehr
Help, yes.

Shawn Buckley
Okay. So you did get vaccinated with the COVID-19 vaccines?

Richard Fehr
Yes, I did.

Shawn Buckley
Did you want to?

Richard Fehr
No, I didn’t.

Shawn Buckley
And can you explain your thoughts.

Richard Fehr
I didn’t believe in them. I didn’t trust them. They weren’t proven like the ones you get when you were kids, so I did not want to do it.

Shawn Buckley
Okay, but you did do it. So why did you get vaccinated?

Richard Fehr
I did it because the University forced me to.

Shawn Buckley
Okay, and what do you mean they forced you to?

Richard Fehr
It was get the vaccination or quit my job.

Shawn Buckley
Okay, so basically, just so I understand, is you’re in this economic bind. You’re going to lose your job and lose those benefits that your disabled wife needs if you don’t get vaccinated.

Richard Fehr
Right.

Shawn Buckley
Okay. And then you got your first shot on August 23rd, 2021?

Richard Fehr
Yes.

Shawn Buckley
And that was with the Pfizer vaccine?

Richard Fehr
Yes, it was.

Shawn Buckley
Can you tell us, did you have any effects to that?

Richard Fehr
The first vaccination, I did not.

Shawn Buckley
Okay. And then your second shot was on September 23rd, 2023?

Richard Fehr
No, 2022. No, 2021, I mean.

Shawn Buckley
Yeah, yeah. Okay. I had to double look at my notes there. So September 23rd, 2021. Tell us what happened after the second shot.

Richard Fehr
I got sick. I was really lazy. I didn’t want to do anything. I was tired, and I don’t remember if I was vomiting or not, but I feel like I would have.

Shawn Buckley
Okay. Did you go to work?

Richard Fehr
No, I missed work for three days.

Shawn Buckley
Okay, and is that common for you?

Richard Fehr
No, only when I’m sick, I miss work.

Shawn Buckley
So you missed three days of work, and then you go back to work. What happened after that?

Richard Fehr
I worked for a couple of months.

Shawn Buckley
Okay. And then what happened?

Richard Fehr
On December 2nd, 2021 I had a massive heart attack.

Shawn Buckley
Okay. And I’m just gonna stop you because I just want everyone to understand this is very difficult for you to talk about, isn’t it?

Richard Fehr
Yes.

Shawn Buckley
Okay. And if you need to stop or anything, let me know, because we’re not here to push you. We do appreciate you sharing your story. So you had a heart attack?

Richard Fehr
Yeah. I went to work in the morning feeling sick, and I tried doing my job, but I couldn’t. My coworker, he said that I looked pale and like I was not there. So I decided to go home and started walking home because I live right on the campus, I rent from the University. And I got about 100 yards away from my house and dropped dead with a massive heart attack.

Shawn Buckley
Okay, now I’m just gonna back up. So you go to work feeling sick, right?

Richard Fehr
Yeah.

Shawn Buckley
At work, am I correct that you threw up?

Richard Fehr
Yes.

Shawn Buckley
And that you normally, if you’re gonna go home after working at the dairy farm, you shower, but you didn’t feel well enough to even do that?

Richard Fehr
No, I did not.

Shawn Buckley
Okay. Now, so you’re walking home and you have a heart attack. Am I correct that a lot of this you’ve been told?

Richard Fehr
Yes. Everything past the doors of work, I don’t remember.

Shawn Buckley
Okay. And I’m gonna have you go through what you’ve been told in a second, but what’s the next thing you remember?

Richard Fehr
Waking up in the hospital.

Shawn Buckley
Okay. And what’s happening?

Richard Fehr
I really don’t remember because I was still intubated, but I could hear my wife and I could blink with my eyes.

Shawn Buckley
Okay. And what was your wife saying?

Richard Fehr
She was saying, blink if you love me.

Shawn Buckley
Was she also telling you to fight and hang on.

Richard Fehr
She told me to fight, which I am a fighter.

Shawn Buckley
Okay. So I just want people to understand. So you remember leaving work, but then your next conscious memory is waking up in the hospital with an intubation tube down your throat.

Richard Fehr
Yeah and told I had a massive heart attack.

Shawn Buckley
Right. And your wife telling you to fight.

Richard Fehr
Yeah.

Shawn Buckley
Okay. So bearing in mind that you’re now just reconstructing based on what people told you happened. What happened?

Richard Fehr
So they revived me 9 times. They shocked me 17 times, and I was in and out of death for 90 minutes.

Shawn Buckley
And I understand that a gentleman named Gary White was involved. Can you tell us what you heard about that?

Richard Fehr
Gary was the one that seen me collapse and pulled over and started CPR.

Shawn Buckley
And my understanding is that Gary was a retired Army Veteran.

Richard Fehr
He was.

Shawn Buckley
Now, and he would have been 55, as I understand it at that time.

Richard Fehr
Yes. He would have been 55 at that time.

Shawn Buckley
Okay. What happened to Gary White within the twelve months of him stopping and giving you CPR?

Richard Fehr
So after I got out of the hospital, I wanted to get strong enough before I met him. And I guess I waited too long, and he had his own massive heart attack in August and died.

Shawn Buckley
Okay, so at age 56.

Richard Fehr
At age 56, yes.

Shawn Buckley
Okay. So I’m gonna go back. So you were sharing with us your next memory after leaving work was waking up in the hospital and you’re ventilated and your wife’s telling you to fight. After that, what’s your next memory after that?

Richard Fehr
Would probably be when I had to have another major surgery because I was going septic.

Shawn Buckley
Okay. And so can you tell us: So you had a heart attack. What’s your understanding of why you had a heart attack? What happened?

Richard Fehr
I have no idea. I want answers.

Shawn Buckley
Okay. We’re like, Doreen, can you help us out here?

Doreen Fehr
Yes.

Shawn Buckley
Okay. So what’s your understanding of why Richard had a heart attack?

Doreen Fehr
The day he had his heart attack, a doctor had come into the waiting room where the parents were, and Andrea. And a doctor had come in, and they told Andrea she could go to be with Richard. But I shouldn’t say doctor, a medical staff, I’m not sure if it was a doctor. Anyway, the medical staff said, “Are you the parents?” Yes. “I’m here to ask you questions about Richard’s medical history and family history. Is Richard healthy?” “Richard’s very healthy. He’s never sick. He doesn’t have a family doctor because he’s never sick.”

The doctor asked about family history. We said people usually die of cancer or old age, no heart attacks. He showed us a picture of Richard’s heart X-Ray. He said, “This is Richard’s heart. There’s no plaque. His LDL and LDH levels are that of a normal 40 year-old. Did he have his COVID shot?” We said, “Yes.” The doctor stood up, or the medical staff, shook his head and walked out.

Shawn Buckley
Okay. Did he have a blood clot or something? Like what?

Doreen Fehr
Yes. He had shown on Richard’s heart, this is the main artery, and this is where we suctioned out the blood clots and where we had to put in stents.

Shawn Buckley
Okay. So his heart didn’t show heart disease, and so they wanted to know his vaccination status. And as soon as they learned that he was vaccinated, conversation was over.

Doreen Fehr
Yes.

Shawn Buckley
And so this wasn’t, you know, an artery slowly getting blocked. This was a blood clot blocking a major artery.

Doreen Fehr
Yes.

Shawn Buckley
So we’ll move you back there to Richard. So you have this massive heart attack. They have to, I think you said, revive you, resuscitated nine times and shocked 17 times—meaning the defibrillator to get your heart going. What were the consequences of you basically losing all this blood flow and oxygen to your system for that period of time? Because something happened to you.

Richard Fehr
Yeah. On the second day after my heart attack, my large bowel quit working, and they removed it and gave me an ileostomy.

Shawn Buckley
Okay. And so did you recover quickly after that?

Richard Fehr
I think I did recover pretty quickly.

Shawn Buckley
Okay, so your large bowel dies, and that was because of a lack of oxygen.

Richard Fehr
Yes.

Shawn Buckley
And so you have a surgery. They remove your entire large intestine.

Richard Fehr
Yes.

Shawn Buckley
And you put on an ileostomy bag.

Richard Fehr
Yes.

Shawn Buckley
And you still have that bag.

Richard Fehr
Yes, I do.

Shawn Buckley
Now, that wasn’t the end of your troubles in the hospital, though, was it?

Richard Fehr
No.

Shawn Buckley
So what happened next?

Richard Fehr
So then I went septic, and they had to give me another major surgery and put eight drainage tubes in my body.

Shawn Buckley
And why did you go septic?

Richard Fehr
I’ll leave that one to my mom.

Shawn Buckley
Okay, but please use the mic right to your mouth.

Doreen Fehr
The reason he went septic is there was no blood flow to his colon, and his colon had died and it ruptured, and his abdomen was filling up with fecal matter, with pus, with blood.

Shawn Buckley
Okay. And do you recall how long he was in surgery for that second surgery?

Doreen Fehr
Five and a half hours.

Shawn Buckley
Okay. And then back to you, Richard. So you have the second surgery and you remember that happening, right?

Richard Fehr
Yeah, I signed the papers for that.

Shawn Buckley
Okay, so what happens after that second surgery?

Richard Fehr
Then I’m out for—I’m sedated for a while again. I kind of remember waking up for Christmas, and New Year’s, but I was still pretty out of it.

Shawn Buckley
Okay, so they start deliberately sedating you, right?

Richard Fehr
Yes.

Shawn Buckley
And that’s because you were suffering from delirium?

Richard Fehr
That was a little while later, yes.

Shawn Buckley
Okay. And did you have any ongoing infections with all this?

Richard Fehr
Yes. My PICC [peripherally inserted central catheter] lines got infected. I think it was three times or two times that I had infections from the PICC line from being in too long.

Shawn Buckley
Okay. And for those people that don’t understand what a PICC line is, can you describe what a PICC line is?

Richard Fehr
It’s a line that goes into your vein and it goes around to your heart, so you get the medications and stuff.

Shawn Buckley
Right. And that basically had been left in too long without being changed?

Richard Fehr
Yes.

Shawn Buckley
And so you got repeated infections from that?

Richard Fehr
Yes.

Shawn Buckley
Did you have any difficulties with your legs or your right leg?

Richard Fehr
I had difficulties with both them.

Shawn Buckley
Can you tell us about that?

Richard Fehr
I had to learn to walk three times from just being malnutrition.

Shawn Buckley
Did you also have blood clots in your right leg?

Richard Fehr
I heard I did, yes.

Shawn Buckley
Okay.

Richard Fehr
In my right leg.

Shawn Buckley
And maybe, Doreen, I’ll ask you if you can fill in the blanks there. And it’s just interesting, Richard, because it’s illustrative of the experience you had that a lot of it, you don’t remember. So, Doreen, can you fill in with the right leg?

Doreen Fehr
His right leg? When he had his surgery on the 21st of December, they were very concerned, and they said that he had a blood clot in his groin. And, yeah, they had to work on that. And that was also on the 21st of December was the second time he had gone septic. The first time was on December 5th when he had his large intestine removed, and then again on the 21st.

Shawn Buckley
And my understanding, Richard, is you spent 117 days in the hospital.

Richard Fehr
Yes.

Shawn Buckley
And that when you came home, you basically have that PICC line still in, or was it just a regular IV in?

Richard Fehr
I think it was just a regular IV.

Shawn Buckley
Okay. And you had a drainage bag still?

Richard Fehr
Yes, I still had a drainage bag on me.

Shawn Buckley
Now, when you were in the hospital for this 117 days, were you being visited by your kids every day?

Richard Fehr
No.

Shawn Buckley
Okay. Tell me about visitations.

Richard Fehr
They were terrible. I only had my mom and my wife that could see me.

Shawn Buckley
And why is that?

Richard Fehr
Because of COVID restrictions. But on February 23rd, when I turned 41, my kids got to come see me in the hospital for an hour. And that was 80 days, I think, in.

Shawn Buckley
Okay, just so that I understand: So you have a heart attack. You are in the hospital for a full 80 days, and for that entire time, you’re not able to see your two boys.

Richard Fehr
Right.

Shawn Buckley
And the flip side is, your two boys were not able to see their father that had just had a heart attack and was in the hospital.

Richard Fehr
Yeah.

Shawn Buckley
Tell me about your oldest son. Where was he when he learned about your heart attack?

Richard Fehr
So Crosby was with my wife in the car when they were driving to school. And my boss phoned, and she was just on speakerphone. And he told them that they need to get to the hospital because I’m unresponsive.

Shawn Buckley
So, Crosby, your oldest son basically heard your boss explain that you were likely not going to survive.

Richard Fehr
Right.

Shawn Buckley
Now, how has that affected Crosby? Basically, that experience of being told his father isn’t going to survive and then not being able to see you for 80 days while you’re in the hospital.

Richard Fehr
Crosby doesn’t talk about this. He’s scared to. I can get my ileostomy reversed if I want, but he doesn’t want me to have another surgery because he’s scared I’m gonna die. It’s hard trying to teach kids now, if something happens to me, what to do. And trying to explain to a 13 year-old that it’s fine if he can’t save me, it’s just not right that they have to go through this. He finally told us he wants to talk to somebody and get help, and we got him finally getting help. After two years of not wanting help, he finally is asking for it. So it’s a big step for us with him.

My six year old was four. He doesn’t really remember. He knows what it was, but he was too young to know anything. When Kessler hears the number nine, he always likes to say, “Oh, my dad died nine times.” And sometimes when we’re driving, he’s like, “Hey, dad, remember when you died? Wasn’t that funny?” And, no, it wasn’t. But sure it was. If you want to think that, go ahead. He he likes watching me change my ileostomy and being around, so he’s going to be fine. It’s just that Crosby we’re worried about.

Shawn Buckley
Right. In fact, you’re so worried about Crosby that you are not getting your ileostomy bag taken out because he’s so terrified that you won’t survive the surgery.

Richard Fehr
Right.

Shawn Buckley
You’re not terrified? No, but he’s terrified. And just to keep him calm, you’re. You’re continuing on with the ileostomy bag?

Richard Fehr
Yeah, and it doesn’t bother me, so.

Shawn Buckley
What about the effect on your wife, Andrea?

Richard Fehr
My wife, she suffers from endometriosis and chronic pain. When Kessler was born, she got really bad postpartum which was suicidal, and she was hospitalized for six months, within a year—not six months straight, but six months total. I took off a year to be home with Kessler and raise him.

Now, since that happened, her PTSD is crazy. If Kessler whines, daddy, daddy, daddy, she jumps out of bed thinking I’m dead already somewheres in the house, because of his little whine. When I go ice fishing or fishing alone by myself, every two, maybe three hours, she’ll give me a phone call, and we call it a death check. If I don’t answer and reply in five minutes, she thinks I’m dead. So it’s a lot, but she’s a fighter like me, so.

Shawn Buckley
What’s your health condition like today?

Richard Fehr
Hers?

Shawn Buckley
Yours.

Richard Fehr
Mine. I’m here. I’m getting strong, but I still have a lot of problems.

Shawn Buckley
Okay. My understanding is your heart works at roughly 45% of what it should.

Richard Fehr
That’s what it measures at right now, yes.

Shawn Buckley
Okay. And this is two years after the event.

Richard Fehr
Two years.

Shawn Buckley
And my understanding is you can only play with your boys for a little period of time, and then you get short of breath?

Richard Fehr
Yes. I get exhausted after biking with Kessler. Before my heart attack, I could go biking kilometers with him. Now, two would be the max that I could go biking with him. And then when I come home, I’m exhausted, I can’t breathe, I’m wheezy, I’m cough. And I really need to lay down and nap.

Shawn Buckley
Right. And my understanding is you do nap two to four hours a day.

Richard Fehr
Yes, I still nap two to four hours a day because I’m exhausted.

Shawn Buckley
Right. And that’s because of your heart condition. You didn’t do that before your heart attack?

Richard Fehr
No, I did when I milked because I had to get up at four in the morning, and I’d get off at noon and then I’d nap. But not if I didn’t have to.

Shawn Buckley
Right. Will you ever be able to work again?

Richard Fehr
I have no idea. I won’t be able to dairy farm ever again.

Shawn Buckley
And what’s the economic situation for the family now?

Richard Fehr
Survive.

Shawn Buckley
Okay. First of all, do the doctors attribute this as a vaccine injury?

Richard Fehr
Not that I know of.

Shawn Buckley
So you’re not getting any compensation or you’re not in the vaccine injury program?

Richard Fehr
No.

Shawn Buckley
Okay. Can you pass the mic to your mother, Doreen? So, Doreen, my first question is, you know, did I miss anything? Because you experienced this in a different way than Richard.

Doreen Fehr
Sorry. I have so many thoughts. So many thoughts going through my head. While Richard was in the hospital and having gone septic so many times, he failed to say he had infection in his CV line [Central Venous line] also. While he was there, he wasn’t getting proper nutrition. He turned yellow. He was jaundiced. We were constantly waiting day after day for medical procedures that he was being bumped from.

I was beginning to take pictures of all of his drain lines and his PICC lines to make sure, like, I was checking them every day to make sure that they weren’t getting worse. He had to have an MRI. He couldn’t have the MRI because one of the drain tubes had a wire in it. So we had to wait for several days. That was a Friday. We had to wait several days for him to have a MRCP [Magnetic Resonance Cholangiopancreatography] and then he needed an ERCP [Endoscopic Retrograde Cholangiopancreatography] and then he needed to go to city hospital for another, I think that was the ERCP. He needed a liver drain. He was being fed through his nose and through his arm, TPN [Total Parenteral Nutrition] and NJ [Naso-Jejunal] feed.

When one morning I came to the hospital and I pulled the curtain back and I noticed he was yellow. So I went to the nurses station and I asked about his liver count. Well, they hadn’t done a liver count, so I asked if they please could. His liver, the tube from his gallbladder to his liver was plugged, so he needed to have a stent put in.

They thought he was turning jaundice and his liver enzyme count was so high, was because of the TPN, the feed, that he was getting in his arm. So they removed that. He was getting delirious. He pulled out one night during the middle of the night, his NJ feed, I think, some other things. And he was really restless. He was starting to get delirious, clearly losing lots of weight, waiting day after day for one test or another test, constantly being bumped.

Shawn Buckley
Why was he getting bumped? Like, were you being told why these procedures were being held up?

Doreen Fehr
Well, the one morning when I went to the hospital to sit with Richard, when I had walked in, the nurse had said, “Well, Doreen, we broke a record today.” And I said, “Oh, did Richard drink something or eat without puking?” And the nurse said, “No, just on my shift since I started today, there’s been twelve stroke victims. So Richard’s been bumped. He’s not getting his procedure again.”

Shawn Buckley
Right, now you were not vaccinated?

Doreen Fehr
No, I was not.

Shawn Buckley
How did that affect your ability to see Richard? Because you and his wife, [Andrea], were the two people that were allowed in?

Doreen Fehr
Yes, Andrea and I were the only ones that could go see Richard. The day he had his first surgery, his ileostomy, when they removed his colon, I was told down in CCU that I would be able to go up there to ICU with Richard for the night after his surgery. When the doctors came and talked to us after Richard was out of surgery, I asked the doctor again, “Am I able to spend the night with Richard?” And they had said yes. So my husband was able to come that day to the hospital to see Richard on the 5th of December. So he drove Andrea home. This was after midnight.

And I had gone up into ICU with Richard, and I was sitting in his room off in the corner, and I was praying quietly and just thankful that I could be there. And all of a sudden, the nurse had come in and said, “You need to leave.” So I got up and I had my gown on, my mask, the shield, the cap. So I was going to just walk out of the room thinking that they were going to check one of his PICC lines or port lines or drains. And the nurse said, “No, you need to leave now.” Okay. And so I’m walking out of the room and she, “You need to get your purse, and you need to get your jacket, and you need to leave right now.” And I said, “Why? Where am I gonna go?” “I don’t care where you go, but you need to leave. You cannot stay here.” “And but I was told down in CCU, and when we talked to the doctors that I could stay with him.”

Shawn Buckley
Can I just interrupt, because my understanding is the doctors weren’t clear whether Richard was going to live the night.

Doreen Fehr
That’s right.

Shawn Buckley
So you’re trying to be there because your son might be passing.

Doreen Fehr
That’s right. And, in fact, down in CCU they said, “We encourage people to stay with their loved ones.” So I was really thankful because things had opened up. If I may, I just would like to go back to something that I would like to say. In 2020 our oldest son was in the hospital, and he had to have major surgery. Nobody was allowed to go to the hospital. So I was feeling very blessed and very privileged to have been allowed, being unvaccinated, that I could go and be with our son and trade off with Andrea.

So I had asked the nurse, “Why do I have to leave?” And she says, “The charge nurse said that you need to leave now.” So I went over to the charge nurse, and I said, “Why do I have to go? Like I was told I could stay, I was encouraged to stay.” And she said, “You’re not vaccinated, and you’re putting us at risk, at harm, not only on us, but also for your son.” And I just started crying.

Shawn Buckley
I need to stop you, because my understanding is: For you as an unvaccinated person to access the hospital, you had to have a negative PCR test every other day.

Doreen Fehr
Yes.

Shawn Buckley
So you’re probably the only person in the hospital that they conclusively know doesn’t have COVID.

Doreen Fehr
Yes.

Shawn Buckley
Okay. Sorry for interrupting, but I thought that was an important point.

Doreen Fehr
That’s quite all right. Yeah. So I’m crying, and I’m thinking, where am I going to go? My husband drove Andrea home. He went back to Hague. It’s 2:30 in the morning. Where am I going to go? So I go down into the lobby, where the cafeteria is, and I sat down and I’m trying to get my thoughts together, and I’m just bawling. I don’t cry very easily, normally.

The fella at the visitor’s desk brings me Kleenex, and he says, “Ma’am, what’s the matter?” And I said, “I was just kicked out.” I said, “I don’t know where I’m going to go. I don’t know what to do.” So he gives me a few minutes, and all of a sudden, two security guards come. “Ma’am, you need to leave. You need to leave now.” “What if my son dies? I was told I can be here.” “Well, you are not able to be here. You need to leave.”

Shawn Buckley
Did that happen again?

Doreen Fehr
It happened the next night as well. That night the doctors said that I should come back at six o’clock or seven o’clock for rounds. So when I told the charge nurse that I could be back, she told me to go to a hotel. She didn’t care where I went. So I was back at seven for rounds. The next night, I’m sitting beside Richard and I’m praying quietly, and she comes and says, “You need to leave. You’re not wearing your mask, correct?” I’ve got the shield on, but I had seen somebody else, you know, twisted around the ear, so there was a little knot there. “You’re not wearing—You’re putting us at risk. You’re putting everybody here at risk and you’re putting your son at risk. You need to leave.” So again, I have to leave. Many times during his hospital stay, I was told that I shouldn’t be there, shouldn’t be at the hospital because I was not vaccinated.

Shawn Buckley
I’m just going to pull up some photos and I’m going to ask you to comment on the photos. And I’ll let the commissioners know that Richard has not seen these photos because he has found it too emotional to deal with. And Richard, they’re going to be on the screen behind you. You don’t need to look at them, but I’m going to have your mother describe them. So, David, if you can pull up the photos. So, Doreen, can you describe this first photo, what it is?

Doreen Fehr
This first photo is December 2nd, when we got to the hospital and he was out of the Cath lab and he had his stent put in, and they were trying to keep him alive. And that was in CCU at RUH [Royal University Hospital].

Shawn Buckley
Okay, what’s this second photo?

Doreen Fehr
This next photo, he’s still in CCU. And they told us that he probably had no brain activity, that he could be brain dead. And I said, “No, our son is not going to be—He is not brain dead. He is fine. His brain is fine. God didn’t send Gary to perform CPR the minute he went down and keep the blood flowing. Our son will live and he will be fine and there is no brain damage.”

Shawn Buckley
Okay, and what’s this next photo?

Doreen Fehr
This next photo is, they’re still monitoring his brain. And this is the December 5th. Right the night that he had his colon removed. And he has been moved to ICU.

Shawn Buckley
So this is where you got kicked out of.

Doreen Fehr
Yes.

Shawn Buckley
What’s this a photo of?

Doreen Fehr
This is the next night he started swelling. And, yeah, he was very critical. And I was in the room praying, holding his hand, and I took a picture. And shortly after that, the nurse told me I needed to leave.

Shawn Buckley
And what is this a picture of?

Doreen Fehr
This is after they took off the brain monitor to see about the brain activity. And this is December 7th, I do believe. And he’s still swollen. He was septic, and just all of the drain tubes, they’re trying to get all of the infection to drain out.

Shawn Buckley
And then this photo.

Doreen Fehr
This photo is right after he got his liver drain, I believe this was February 22nd. This is, if you see how yellow he is and how much weight he had lost, they had weighed him the end of February. They stood him up, and he had bedsores on his lower back, and he was 130 pounds from 181.

Shawn Buckley
And then this photo.

Doreen Fehr
This was in between December 7th and December 21st. He was moved out of ICU on the 15th of December, up to Coronary Care Unit on 6th floor or 5th floor.

Shawn Buckley
And what about this photo?

Doreen Fehr
This is when he was waiting for his ERCP, where they had to go into his gallbladder and put a stent in from his liver to his gallbladder.

Shawn Buckley
And you talked about him being jaundiced, so he’s very yellow. And that’s what you meant. Thank you, David. You can take down those photographs.

Richard Fehr
We like to say emoji.

Shawn Buckley
Okay, thank you. So those are my questions. I’ll ask the commissioners if they have some questions for you. And the commissioners, I guess I did a good job of questioning you. They don’t have any questions. So, Richard and Doreen, on behalf of the National Citizen Inquiry, I sincerely thank you for coming and giving your testimony today.

Richard Fehr
You’re welcome.

Credentials

Richard Fehr is a 43-year-old dairy farmer from Saskatchewan. He has worked at the Rayner Dairy and Teaching Facility run by the University of Saskatchewan for 17 years. Richard is married to Andrea and they have two sons – Crosby, 13, and Kessler, 7. Prior to his health issues, Richard was very healthy and active. He is a devoted family man who took a year off work to care for his youngest son when his wife experienced postpartum depression. Richard is described as a fighter who has shown tremendous resilience in the face of medical challenges.

Summary

Richard Fehr testifies about experiencing severe health complications after receiving COVID-19 vaccines that were mandated by his employer, the University of Saskatchewan. He describes being initially hesitant about the vaccines but feeling forced to get them to keep his job and benefits. After his second dose in September 2021, Richard suffered a massive heart attack in December 2021. He had to be resuscitated multiple times and underwent emergency surgeries. Richard spent 117 days in the hospital, during which he experienced sepsis, infections, and had to have his large intestine removed. He describes ongoing health issues including reduced heart function, fatigue, and breathing difficulties. Richard shares the emotional toll on his family, especially his older son who has struggled with anxiety. He is currently unable to work and faces an uncertain future regarding his ability to return to dairy farming. Richard’s mother Doreen also testifies about the challenges of supporting her son in the hospital while being unvaccinated herself. The testimony highlights the personal and familial impacts of vaccine mandates and severe adverse events.