[00:00:00]

Wayne Lenhardt

Samantha, can you hear me?

Samantha Monaghan

Yes, I can.

Wayne Lenhardt

Okay, and we can hear you. Could you spell your full name for me? And then I’ll do an oath with you.

Samantha Monaghan

Samantha Monaghan, S-A-M-A-N-T-H-A  M-O-N-A-G-H-A-N.

Wayne Lenhardt

Do you promise that the evidence you’ll give is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?

Samantha Monaghan

I do.

Wayne Lenhardt

Samantha, to set the stage here, this is about your son who died after he got a blood transfusion. And I think the issue for the Commission is, is this an issue with respect to COVID relating to tainted blood?

And to just set that stage for a second, there was a commission years ago by a law professor by the name of Horace Krever relating to tainted blood related to HIV. So I think this is probably the only time the Commission is going to touch on this issue is with you, so could you give us a quick summary of what happened to your son?

Samantha Monaghan

I took my son to the hospital. I think it was back in September 2022. He had a swollen elbow. So we just were coming from his naturopath and getting a panel done—

Wayne Lenhardt

Could you turn your volume up a tiny bit? I think we’re having trouble hearing you. I am at least, anyway.

Samantha Monaghan

I think it’s up as high as it’ll go. Can you hear me?

Wayne Lenhardt

Yeah. Do we need our volume turned up?

Samantha Monaghan

Yeah, it’s up as high as it will go.

Wayne Lenhardt

Okay, I’m sorry, could you start again?

Samantha Monaghan

I took my son into the IWK [Izaak Walton Killian Hospital for Children] hospital in September, and he had a swollen elbow. So I was getting it checked out and they ended up doing his blood work. To make a long story short, his hemoglobin came back and it was very low: it was extremely low to the point that he was going to need a blood transfusion. I said, “Oh, no problem. I have no problem giving my blood for blood transfusion.”

Given all my research and studies that I have done with the blood supply and the vaccines and everything, I wanted to make sure that the blood that he was given was safe. So I ended up rallying about 300 donors to give blood to my child because he was O positive and myself was O positive. And I was denied by the blood supply in Nova Scotia that this couldn’t be done and that I couldn’t be a donor to my son as well. It was all denied, and then I ended up having to give him donated blood from the blood bank.

Wayne Lenhardt

And at that point he died relatively shortly after that, correct?

Samantha Monaghan

He died November the 21st.

Wayne Lenhardt

Do you have any evidence that it was because of tainted blood? Have you looked into that?

Samantha Monaghan

No. No, my son was cremated, and there was an autopsy done. They said that he died from underlying conditions, which possibly could have happened. But it’s the way he died that kind of struck home for me. There was no evidence that he was going to die or that he was sick in any way. He got his blood transfusion. We get out of the hospital. It was around three weeks after we were in the hospital, I think, a good couple of weeks. And we were getting our blood done. We’d seen the pediatrician. He was, everything was good. On November the 21st at 5:24 pm, he was sitting on my knee, and he just stopped blinking and he passed away. There was no indication that he was sick or he was going to pass away, and he didn’t have any heart conditions.

Wayne Lenhardt

Yeah. He did have some sort of conditions though, did he not?

Samantha Monaghan

He did. He had fumarase deficiency and polymicrogyria, but it doesn’t affect the heart. And it wouldn’t cause him to have blood clots or anything like that.

Wayne Lenhardt

Okay, and how old was he when this happened?

Samantha Monaghan

He was 11 years old. It happened 12 weeks after the blood transfusion.

Wayne Lenhardt

And I understand he died of cardiac arrest.

Samantha Monaghan

That’s what my doctor thinks he had passed away with. But the autopsy said that he passed away from underlying condition.

[00:05:00]

Which possibly could have been because I didn’t have anything tested or any means to test his blood after he had the blood to make sure that his blood was okay.

Wayne Lenhardt

And you had rallied some people that had the same blood type as he did, and I understand you have the same blood type as he?

Samantha Monaghan

I have O positive, yeah.

Wayne Lenhardt

And the hospital either didn’t want to, or wasn’t able to use any of your blood, is that fair?

Samantha Monaghan

Yeah, my parental rights would have been taken away if I hadn’t chosen to go the route of the blood donation from the blood clinic. I tried to rally them, but there was no way that I could have used my blood or anybody else’s blood. My fear was that he would have gotten vaccinated blood and then he would have died from that.

Wayne Lenhardt

I think I’m going to stop and ask the commissioners if they have any questions or any issues they’d like to explore on this.

Commissioner Kaikkonen

You made a comment, your parental rights would be taken away. Can you add to that and just let us know how?

Samantha Monaghan

Well, if I didn’t agree to the blood transfusion, the pediatrician on at that point in time said that my parental rights would have been removed and I would have to leave the hospital. And Luke would have ended up getting the transfusion anyways. So I decided to stay and okay the transfusion under duress.

Commissioner Kaikkonen

So just to make sure I got this right, the pediatrician said that if you didn’t agree to a blood transfusion that—

Samantha Monaghan

Yeah, there wasn’t any option. I couldn’t use my blood, nor could I use the donors’ or anybody else that would want to donate to my son. The only option I had was to use blood from the Nova Scotia blood bank. There was no talk. There was nothing: either I did it this way, or they would have took my parental rights away and I would have ended up having to do it anyways. He would have ended up getting the blood transfusion.

Commissioner Kaikkonen

So did Canadian Blood Services and Halifax inform you that there is an option for putting your blood aside when you’re expecting to have some sort of blood transfusion in the future?

Samantha Monaghan

No, I wasn’t given an option.

Commissioner Kaikkonen

Thank you.

Wayne Lenhardt

Yes, Dr. Massie.

Commissioner Massie

I have a question about the underlying condition or the situation that actually led to the necessity of blood transfusion. Are they related or are they completely two separate medical conditions?

Samantha Monaghan

Fumarase deficiency controls the Krebs cycle, so it could have been a factor for his iron getting low, his ferritin getting low. But he never had hemoglobin getting low because of his condition before. His survival rate was infancy, and he was 11 years old. And I did all natural treatments with him.

Commissioner Massie

My other question, you had concern about getting blood from the Canadian blood bank. What was the kind of information that you gathered in order to raise some questions about that?

Samantha Monaghan

It would have been what was in the vaccine that was killing people or making people sick. My worry is that it was going to be in the blood if it was infused out, spike proteins or graphene oxide would have been in the blood that would have harmed him in some way.

Commissioner Massie

Thank you very much.

Wayne Lenhardt

Are there any other questions from the Commissioners? One question that I have is what was on the documents as to the cause of death of your son?

Samantha Monaghan

“Underlying conditions,” I do believe.

Wayne Lenhardt

Okay. Any last questions? No. Okay, I want to thank you very much on behalf of the National Citizens Inquiry for giving us your testimony today. And thank you again.

Samantha Monaghan

Thank you very much. Thank you.

[00:10:00]

Final Review and Approval: Margaret Phillips, September 6, 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

In September 2022, Samantha Monaghan took her 11-year-old son to hospital to have  his swollen elbow evaluated. The blood work showed his hemoglobin to be extremely low. It was determined that he would need a blood transfusion. Samantha requested that she donate her blood for the transfusion since both she and her son are O-positive. Her research of the blood supply left her concerned for the safety of the blood. Samantha knew he could possibly receive COVID-19 vaccinated blood with spike protein and graphene oxide and that could harm him. As a backup, she gathered about 300 donors with the same blood type to donate as well but all her efforts were denied by Nova Scotia. Samantha was left with no choice but to agree to blood from the blood bank. She was told her parental rights would be taken away if she didn’t choose to get the blood donation from the blood clinic. Approximately three weeks later he was seen by his pediatrician and all appeared to be well.

Twelve weeks following the transfusion, her son was sitting on Samantha’s knee and suddenly passed away. He was not sick and he didn’t have a heart condition. Her doctor believes he died of a cardiac arrest, but the autopsy said that he passed away from underlying conditions. He had an underlying condition called fumarase deficiency in polymicrogyria, which doesn’t affect the heart or cause blood clots.