A Quebec father says he needed to take his son to the USA for care after alleging medical doctors in Montreal wrote off his son’s probabilities at survival.
In October 2024, two-and-a-half-year-old Arthur Tetrault was discovered within the pool of a house his household was renting in Ile-Bizard, Que., a Montreal suburb.
Nicolas Tetrault mentioned his son was rushed to the Lakeshore Normal Hospital Emergency division, and ultimately, was transferred to the Montreal Kids’s Hospital.
It was there the place his father mentioned he started to develop unhappy with how his son was being handled.
“They determined unilaterally that Arthur had no likelihood of survival, couldn’t breathe on his personal (and) could be principally within the vegetative state for the subsequent years of his life,” Tetrault mentioned.
Not wanting to surrender on his son, Tetrault mentioned he began doing his personal analysis on potential therapies for drowning victims.
He discovered the work of Dr. Paul Harch, a specialist on hyperbaric oxygen therapy in Louisiana who claims he’s had a number of optimistic leads to younger victims of mind accidents, together with that 85 per cent of severely drowned youngsters would see some degree of enchancment with hyperbaric oxygen therapy.
Tetrault mentioned he requested medical doctors in Montreal to present Arthur hyperbaric oxygen therapy and different different therapies primarily based on rising oxygen ranges.
In line with him, they mentioned no. Hyperbaric therapy shouldn’t be authorised by Well being Canada to deal with drowning victims.
“They mentioned, ‘It’s witchcraft, all of the medical doctors within the U.S. are imbeciles,’” Tetrault claims.
Dr. Pierre Marois, a toddler rehabilitation specialist affiliated with Sainte-Justine Kids’s Hospital, mentioned he and Harch have spoken at conferences about hyperbaric oxygen therapy.
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Marois visited Arthur on the Montreal Kids’s Hospital.
“I used to be shocked that they had been enthusiastic about eradicating any life help at the moment,” Marois mentioned.
Harch mentioned medical doctors writing off youngsters coping with accidents like Arthur’s is “fairly typical,” and mentioned when a mother or father proposes a remedy like hyperbaric oxygen therapy to a physician, the scenario can get “very confrontational.”
“This remedy is a really curious and weird one that isn’t taught in medical colleges,” he mentioned.
“If a physician can’t clarify a remedy and have an understanding, they don’t refer folks to it.”
Tetrault mentioned he pulled each string he may and bought Arthur to Ochsner Medical Middle in New Orleans, the place he’s already beginning to obtain care that he says is “1,000,000 instances higher.”
To him, the case underscores variations between the Canadian and American methods.
“The dad and mom are handled as a consumer, you realize, whereas within the hospitals in Montreal, we’re seen as a supply of expense,” he mentioned.
Medical malpractice lawyer Patrick Martin-Menard mentioned Quebec’s public system does lack a customer support tradition.
He mentioned that although he doesn’t wish to generalize, he’s seen conditions the place medical doctors, nurses or different decision-makers might be disrespectful, condescending and even abusive with sufferers.
“Such a perspective could be very current right here within the Quebec health-care system,” he mentioned.
Martin-Menard wonders, nevertheless, if a system that comes with important monetary obstacles is actually higher.
“You could find various flaws in our system. It’s also possible to discover various flaws within the U.S. system, the primary of which being the sum of money that’s required for somebody to have entry to one of these service,” he mentioned.
“The standard of care within the U.S., is it that significantly better than in Quebec? I feel it’s undoubtedly up for dialogue, but it surely’s not a transparent black-and-white factor.”
The Montreal Kids’s Hospital (MCH) mentioned in a press release that its choices are primarily based on greatest practices.
“Usually, there’s little hope for survival of a kid whose coronary heart stops exterior the hospital and requires extended cardiopulmonary resuscitation, arriving on the hospital with no heartbeat. This will occur in instances akin to drowning. The standard consequence is both dying or survival in a everlasting vegetative state,” MCH communications director Christine Bouthillier mentioned in an electronic mail.
She mentioned organ donation isn’t mentioned with households except dying is imminent, and by no means components into choices or discussions about neuroprognosis.
“Hyperbaric oxygen shouldn’t be indicated for the persistent therapy of oxygen deprivation mind harm after resuscitated cardiac arrest and isn’t supplied in Quebec,” she mentioned.
Heart specialist Dr. Christopher Labos, who works with McGill College’s Workplace for Science and Society, acknowledges that any mother or father will spare no expense to avoid wasting a toddler. He mentioned hyperbaric oxygen therapy has a number of Well being Canada-authorized makes use of, however that treating drowning victims shouldn’t be one.
“In case your treating doctor tells you that it’s not going to work as a result of the proof doesn’t help its use, there’s in all probability a motive why they’re telling you that,” he mentioned.
“I don’t know that there’s any proof to recommend that you may use it for a post-drowning case. That appears somewhat bit exterior of what the proof would recommend.”
Tetrault mentioned Arthur ought to start hyperbaric oxygen therapy this week. He mentioned medical charges are going to finish up costing him “greater than six figures,” however that he’s lastly been capable of sleep.
“I actually really feel that there’s hope,” mentioned Tetrault.
His social media posts documenting Arthur’s path have gone viral. Whether or not or not his son is ever capable of stroll or discuss once more stays unknown.
Tetrault mentioned he plans to dedicate a part of his life to serving to drowning victims acquire entry to therapies.
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