CBC: Cancer patient dies waiting for treatment
Duff McDonald was showing symptoms of prostate cancer last March. He had to wait six months to see a specialist and before a bone scan could be performed, the 65-year-old checked himself into the hospital and died. His daughter spoke out because she says her dad trusted the health care system and doesn't want other people to make the same mistake.
This wasn't the first case of prostate cancer going undiagnosed due to long waiting lists. It's not even the first case this month. (see Tommy Douglas Is Dead - Pt II.)
In late February, it was announced that the NDP's Agriculture Minister Clay Serby had to step down from his portfolio and would be out of the legislature, while undergoing treatment for cancer. The type of cancer has not been revealed, but it is known that it's "treatable" and that he has already had surgery. Officials stressed that Serby was not given preferential treatment or moved to the front of the waiting list.
Perhaps so, and I wish Mr. Serby nothing but the best.
However, if it is revealed that he is suffering from prostate cancer, a lot of people are going to be asking a lot of questions of this health care department, and charges of insensitivity and "using his illness for political purposes" are going to fall as flat as the promises by Health Minister John Nilson to look into the particulars of Mr. McDonald's case.
For comparison's sake, within five days of breaking her arm due to metastatic breast cancer a friend of mine had undergone a bone scan, two CAT scans, a series of other x-rays, an MRI, blood tests galore, and had started both radiation treatments and chemotherapy.
I'm not saying our medical system is perfect, it's far from it, but the speed at which it can move when the issue is serious is stunning and I cannot imagine what going through something like this at the pace at which nationalized systems tend to move would be like. Her primary oncologist can literally get any test or treatment available to medical science that he feels is necessary done within a day or two at most, more often within an hour or two. The hospital she goes to, a relatively small one by the standards here, has several radiation machines, their own PET and MRI machines, you name it, as well as their own Cancer Management Center. It's one of several hospitals (three, if memory serves) in this area that does and this is not even a particularly large city.
Myria