Funding sought for treatment in U.S.
After months spent bouncing between specialists and going through countless tests, a Preeceville man is headed to an American clinic in a last-ditch effort to discover what is causing his drastic weight loss and other serious symptoms.
“It’s awful. You feel totally helpless,” Keri Gardner said of watching her 46-year-old husband Rodney suffer. “Someone you love is deteriorating to the point where the other day he collapsed in pain.”
Diagnosis and treatment at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., could cost tens of thousands of dollars, so Keri is leading a public campaign to have the trip covered by the province.
She presented a Change.org petition with around 6,700 signatures to Health Minister Jim Reiter’s chief of staff recently, she said, noting the request will now go to a review committee.
“I held up my husband’s before picture and after picture and I said, you need to take a look at this, this is a real person. This isn’t about numbers and stats. This is a real person that’s dying that Saskatchewan has failed.”
Rodney first went to his family doctor in December. He had lost about 30 pounds. He was thirsty, had to urinate frequently, and felt dizzy and fatigued. Keri thought it might be diabetes. However, months of blood work, CT scans and biopsies failed to diagnose the problem.
By mid-July, things started to go downhill fast, Keri said. Rodney was suffering vomiting, diarrhea, fatigue, nausea and abdominal pain. The six-foot, two-inch man has dropped to 169 pounds from 210 pounds last year.
On Aug. 17, a Saskatoon urologist noted an abnormality in the kidney, though there would be a four- to sixweek wait for tests to be done.
Keri fears those appointments, stretching to late September and October, will be too late. Instead, his first appointment at the Mayo Clinic is scheduled for Thursday. A deposit alone cost them $7,000; an MRI at the prestigious clinic would cost $35,000, so if one is needed, they will go to a private Winnipeg clinic where the cost is $2,000, she said.
The urologist has issued a referral, but the Gardners have not seen a copy and his office had not yet sent it to the health minister as of late August, she said.
The ministry must approve funding “prior to a Saskatchewan specialist referring a patient for treatment outside of Canada and prior to any appointments outside of Canada,” a health ministry official told Gardner. Services can’t be approved retroactively.
Beyond getting funded for the Mayo Clinic expenses, Gardner said she hopes to join health region focus groups to improve the organization of Saskatchewan’s health-care system.