Nunavut family speaks out after 8year-old given tuberculosis medication meant for another child
TJ Dhir
When Jaffar Gebara found out that his eight-year-old daughter was being given medication for sleeping tu‐ berculosis at her school, he was shocked.
Even more shocking was that his daughter didn't have tuberculosis.
"I'm sad that I let my daughter down and I wasn't told about this or given any consent," said Gebara. "I'm the parent and ... they gave her medication without in‐ forming me and continued to do so behind a parent's back."
Gebara said his daughter was given five doses of tu‐ berculosis medication from a public health assistant at Joamie Ilinniarvik School dur‐ ing a screening clinic last year. The doses were admin‐ istered from October to De‐ cember.
His family wasn't notified until January, he said.
Gebara said his daughter did not experience any any visible or immediate side ef‐ fects from the medication.
Tuberculosis rates in Nunavut are the highest in the country, with several communities still experienc‐ ing active outbreaks. The rate of tuberculosis among Inuit in Canada is nearly 300 times higher than for Canadianborn, non-Indigenous peo‐ ple.
Doses intended for a dif‐ ferent child
In an email addressed to Gebara and his partner, Nicole Etitiq, that was ob‐ tained by CBC News, Iqaluit Public Health (IPH) manager Jenny Begin acknowledged the five doses had been giv‐ en to their child in error.
"The manager of Public Health was notified that a child had received TB med‐ ications intended for another child. The manager then met with the TB physician to re‐ view and discuss the inci‐ dent," Begin wrote.
Begin wrote that she first found out about the incident on Jan. 17 and discussed the incident with the tuberculosis physician.
The next day, according to Begin's email, an internal in‐ vestigation was completed in consultation with Joamie
School and the tuberculosis team at IPH and Gebara and Etitiq were notified.
Gebara and Etitiq said they should have been noti‐ fied by IPH as soon as the health authority found out.
They met with IPH the day after, who offered a medical evaluation with the tubercu‐ losis physician. During the meeting, Etitiq said the assis‐ tant who delivered the med‐ ication did not verify Gebara's daughter's birthday and was told by IPH that the assistant met with Gebara's daughter for less than 10 minutes before giving the medication.
"How can you say that you have a rapport with a child in that short amount of time?" said Etitiq.
Public health doing 'comprehensive review'
Begin's email said they are in the process of reviewing how tuberculosis medication is administered and that a re‐ view "will be comprehensive and take some time."
"In the immediate term, we have already reviewed pa‐ tient identification policies with ALL staff," the email continued. "In addition, no child will receive TB medica‐ tions without a parent/guardian present to help confirm identity."
"Again, we are terribly sor‐ ry that this occurred, and we commit to working to im‐ prove our processes."
Since that email, dated Jan. 24, Gebara and Etitiq said they have been unable to make contact with anyone at IPH to book the evaluation.
"I had asked for a direct line for the doctor on hand, but she said, 'Call us, I'm usu‐ ally here,'" Etitiq said of Be‐ gin. "That was not helpful and I had left a message ask‐ ing her to call us back. I gave my number, I gave [Gebara's] number and we didn't have a response."
History repeats itself
For Etitiq, the system re‐ minds her of similar practices that existed in residential schools.
"My own grandma's daughter was taken away when she had TB and was never brought back," she said. "It was only two years ago that they finally found her remains. Our experience with TB is ongoing. The rest of the world, they don't have experience with TB."
"We're in an epidemic right now."
Etitiq says because of her family's history with residen‐ tial schools, she feels anxious going to hospitals because she can't trust they will do their job well.
"I always find that people come up here, try to make as much money as they can just to get out," she said. "Or they come up here, work hard, make their money, but then they leave. The people don't invest in our communities and I'm sick of feeling like we're not human."
Etitiq calls the process "ongoing colonization."
"We need Inuit-specific policies. We need Inuit-spe‐ cific approaches. We need to hire staff that will have that care and knowledge of fami‐ lies," she said. "We have unilingual elders, we have unilingual people. How can I feel confident in sending chil‐ dren to school or confident in going to the hospital when our experiences have been so horrible?"
The Department of Educa‐ tion declined interview re‐ quests from CBC News to speak with the principal of Joamie School as well as the department itself.
We're in an epidemic right now. - Nicole Etitiq on the state of tubercu‐ losis in Nunavut
The Department of Health declined to comment on the case of Gebara's daughter, citing patient confidentiality and privacy concerns, but Dr. Sean Wachtel, Nunavut's chief public health officer, said an internal review of the territory's TB processes is un‐ derway.
"We are very cognizant of the historical trauma that surrounds TB and the way that it was treated and diag‐ nosed and in fact dealt with in the past," he said. "We are endeavouring to do things very differently now whilst recognizing trauma from the past that is still present, yet still trying to effectively treat the disease."
Wachtel said as part of the review, they would meet with their partners that also work on eliminating tubercu‐ losis, such as the Department of Education, the individual District Education Authorities and Nunavut Tunngavik In‐ corporated.
While IPH promised to no longer administer medication at school, Etitiq says that should have never happened anyway.
"We just want policies changed," she said. "We want people to be held account‐ able. We were not told of any reparations."
"School is a place of learn‐ ing, a hospital is a place of health," Gebara added. "They shouldn't be mixed."