This St. John's mother says her 2-year wait for an MRI is a 'typical Newfoundland story'

Alanna McDonald still re‐ members the exact mo‐ ment she got the call from her doctor's office - 3:55 p.m. - asking her to come in for the results of her MRI.

Almost two years after she began having migraines, blurry vision and facial numbness, she found out she had an acoustic neuroma - a type of brain tumour - and it had grown to three cen‐ timetres in diameter.

"I was like, 'oh my God.' Then it really kind of hit me," she said in an interview with The St. John's Morning Show.

Now, the St. John's chiro‐ practor and mother of three is facing major brain surgery, which she believes could have been avoided if she had been able to get an MRI when her symptoms first de‐ veloped almost two years ago.

In spring 2022, McDonald was getting lunch with her husband when her vision went blurry for the first time and she became dizzy.

"It freaked me out," she said.

Her family doctor, worried about retinal detachment, sent her to see an op‐ tometrist, who didn't find anything abnormal. McDon‐ ald then started to get mi‐ graines and developed facial numbness.

McDonald said her family doctor believed she needed an MRI, but in Newfoundland and Labrador family physi‐ cians can't order that test.

"Through the whole pro‐ cess…she did everything she could do. She did every test she could do, she sent me to every specialist that I could see. Really, her hands were kind of tied," she said.

WATCH | Alanna McDon‐ ald speaks about her twoyear wait:

Her doctor referred her to an ENT specialist. That spe‐ cialist didn't find anything ab‐ normal, but did schedule a non-urgent MRI appoint‐ ment. It was January 2023, and McDonald was told it would take two years to get an appointment.

Meanwhile, her symp‐ toms got worse, and medica‐ tions prescribed by her doc‐ tor weren't helping. She got tinnitus and lost some hear‐ ing in her left ear

Her doctor sent her back to the ENT, who confirmed that she had slight hearing loss

"They had already or‐

dered the MRI, so they said, like, 'there's not much more we can do.'"

Brain surgery

Last summer, her migraines got worse. Her doctor told her to ask for the appoint‐ ment to be moved up. She called the health authority and was put on a cancella‐ tion list.

McDonald was finally able to get the MRI in January and two days later, found out she had a brain tumour.

Now, McDonald is sched‐ uled for brain surgery in Hali‐ fax later in March.

"I go through moments of panic and denial," she said. "I just pretend it's not happen‐ ing."

The surgery takes 14-16 hours, and she'll need to stay in hospital for a week after‐ wards. She'll be permanently deaf in her left ear, and there's risk of other compli‐ cations, like Bell's palsy. She said the tumour has grown too big for less invasive treat‐ ments; surgery is usually a last resort.

McDonald believes she could have availed of those less invasive options if she had gotten the MRI sooner.

"The fact that my out‐ come could have been differ‐ ent is really what gets me," she said.

McDonald, a chiropractor and president of the New‐ foundland and Labrador Chi‐ ropractic Association, was or‐ dered to stop working. Her mother helps looks after her kids, all under age 10.

A 'typical Newfoundland story'

In a statement, N.L. Health Services spokesperson Mikaela Etchegary said MRI appointments are prioritized as emergent, urgent or nonurgent based on guidelines from the Canadian Associa‐ tion of Radiologists and clini‐ cal standards in Alberta and British Columbia.

Current wait times for non-urgent MRIs in New‐ foundland and Labrador vary from 125 to 427 days, based on the patient and where they live.

According to the state‐ ment, N.L. Health Services sets aside appointments each day with emergency or urgent outpatient requests, and unused slots can be filled by non-urgent cases.

The health authority would not comment on Mc‐ Donald's case specifically.

McDonald said she tries to not get angry about her situation.

"It's a typical Newfound‐ land story. It's a typical wait time. I actually got in a little bit earlier because I called and I pushed for it. And that's the sad thing to me, is that ... our system is so shitty right now that I just feel like that is a typical story, and there's nothing special about it," she said.

Another MRI machine coming to Corner Brook

In an interview on Tuesday, Health Minister Tom Osborne said there are some plans underway to increase MRI ac‐ cess in Newfoundland and Labrador. For example, a new machine at the Western Memorial Hospital in Corner Brook will bring the total number of MRI machines in the province to six.

Osborne said adding more MRI referrers - like family doctors - could add to the wait times because more patients could be referred for exams.

LISTEN | Health Minister Tom Osborne speaks about MRI wait times:

Osborne said N.L. Health Services is planning to in‐ crease the number of hours for non-urgent MRI scans to 15 per day. He said the health authority will also give patients the option to travel to less busy locations.

Osborne said he's asked the health authority to devel‐ op a plan to address wait times and create additional capacity for MRIs. That will include a central intake where people will be offered an appointment at a location with the shortest wait time.

He also wants the health authority to look at ways to prevent missed appointmen‐ ts - currently, he said, over five per cent of MRI appoint‐ ments are no-shows.

"That obviously has an im‐ pact on wait times and need‐ ing to reschedule those ap‐ pointments," he said.

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