The tarot card reader and reiki master is part of the ‘tsunami’ of unvaccinated Covid patients flooding hospitals in Australia’s anti-vaxxer capital, friends say.
A prominent anti-vaxxer tarot card reader and reiki master based in the town of Mullumbimby, near Byron Bay, is currently fighting for her life in an intensive care unit, her friend has claimed.
Helen Dean, who also goes by the name Heeling, was hospitalized with Covid-19 on Christmas Eve and needed ventilator help. It is also believed that she is not vaccinated, The Daily Telegraphreports.
Sharing their best wishes on Ms Dean’s social media, a friend said Ms Dean had since been transferred to ‘general ICU’ for ‘continued care and monitoring’.
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News.com.au has contacted NSW Health for comment, but they are unable to discuss individual patients due to confidentiality.
Based in the town of Byron Shire in Mullumbimby – known for its alternative culture – Ms Dean also regularly shares YouTube videos on manifesting, grounding and cleansing techniques and video guides on ‘toxic release’ using sage leaves, candles and bundles – also known as smudge sticks.
The holistic health practitioner has also spoken out in her opposition to vaccination mandates.
Ms Dean shared several posts on Facebook against the vaccination mandates, including photos of protesters holding signs with messages such as: ‘Discrimination is not democracy’, ‘We say no to medical apartheid’ and “My body, my choice”.
In a separate post, Ms Dean shared her support for the #reclaimtheline anti-vaccine mandate rally at Tweed Heads.
“Amazing photo of my siblings walking the hill. United in white. Get people vaccinated to keep their jobs or double vaccinated to get hired.
Is not free to choose,” she wrote on November 7.
It comes as a rise in hospitalizations among the unvaccinated forced health services to open a third Covid ward at Lismore Base Hospital.
Known as the anti-vaxxer capital of Australia, the region’s 85% vaccination rate lags behind the state’s 93.8% figure.
In light of the rise in numbers, doctors said their fears of a ‘tsunami’ of unvaccinated Covid patients flooding hospitals had occurred,
“We are seeing an almost exclusively unvaccinated population in the hospital and an exclusively unvaccinated population in the intensive care unit at this point,” said Dr Chris Ingall. The Daily Telegraph.
“We predicted this, we said there would be a tsunami here, everyone predicted it would sweep the pockets of the unvaccinated.”
Hospital staff say they are under ‘extreme stress’ with up to 100 people a day seeking admission to Byron Central Hospital, The Guardian reports.
“We also have a positive pressure room which is used as an isolation room and another room on which we can close a real door,” the hospital worker said.
“These are often all taken care of, so we have Covid-positive patients in bays behind curtains because we can’t get people to where they need to be in a timely manner.”
As of January 17, 4,993 patients were currently hospitalized with Covid, with 411 people in intensive care and 123 patients requiring ventilators. The NSW figures are half the numbers, with the state reporting 2,776 hospitalizations, with 203 people in intensive care and 61 on ventilators.