Canadian Med System SOS from JMS for a friend

[Jan]

Found on the Moderated Newsgroup

Title: From JMS To Canadian Fans - Urgent Medical Note
Author: [email protected]
Date: Tue, 3 May 2005 03:22:54 +0000 (UTC)
Message-ID: <[email protected] .com>


I'm posting this both as a new thread and a follow-up to an existing
thread to make sure it gets through in a timely fashion.

A while back, I'd asked for cancer information on behalf of a friend.
Now I need some real serious help here as the situation has escalated.

The father of a friend in Ottawa, Ontario Canada underwent surgery for
lung cancer which had a good result for a time, but things have
unexpectedly gone sideways. There is now a problem with the cancer
moving toward the brain. Left unchecked, it will be fatal.

There is treatment which can help immensely even at this
stage...however, he is caught up in gears of the medical bureaucracy
there and as things stand now, won't be able to get to the treatment
until it's too late to do any good. I need someone who can break him
out of the gears and get him into treatment asap and in general be of
help to the family.

So I turn to the Canadian B5 fans ans anyone with connections up there.

Let me be clear: DO NOT EMAIL ME UNLESS YOU FIT THE CRITERIA BELOW.
The family does not have much time before the treatment becomes
unhelpful, so therefore neither do I. I can't put in time poring over
ten thousand emails fishing for the right ones.

So reply ONLY IF you are a) someone who can help them break out of the
gears and get the treatment needed, or b) you know such an individual
personally. An oncologist, a hospital administrator, an
obuds...somebody who can DO something, preferably in the Ottawa area,
but they can go elsewhere if necessary. Do NOT send emails to
recomment web sites, pass along pesonal stories, or suggest places
you've heard about. I appreciate the concern and the advice, but this
isn't the time. This is, very literally, a matter of life and death
and time is of the essence.

I know there are a lot of Canadian B5 fans out there, and somewhere in
your ranks I know there is somebody who can help here. Raise your hand
and let me know who you are and what you can do.

jms

I hope someone can help.

Jan

[Canuck]

Does anyone know what the name of the procedure is that he needs?

[Jan]

Not that I know of. Both of JMS's posts were identical.

Jan

[Dr Maturin]

Ah, the joys of socialized health care. Get ready for Michael Moore's next film Sicko.

[Jan]

In an instance like this, private medicine generally isn't much better. When my sister needed an experimental treatment for her brain cancer, it took some major sting-pulling too. That treatment gave her 2 years of excellent quallity life when the prognosis was 3-4 months so it was worth it.

Jan

[ARK1701]

Not that I know of. Both of JMS's posts were identical.

Jan

Without knowing what *we* are dealing with it's difficult at best to give any useful information.

My mother has Lupus, I can't tell you the amount of times we've had to teach doctors about what's wrong with her.

It's not to say that the doctors are stupid or don't know what Lupus is (far from it), but they need to know her diet, the drugs she takes, personal stress levels, and believe me I could go ON AND ON.

I can understand and respect that JMS probably wants to protect the privacy of his friends, but sadly without at least some details about what the problem is and what needs to be done, our help I'm very afraid is going to be limited at best.


Edited part
I just reread JMS' post and I gather it's not the treatment that he needs information about, it's information about how can his friends cut through the political (or whatever you want to call it) red tape.

That really stinks, they (the people in power) *KNOW* what to do, but wont move there butts.

In a Nut Shell, is that what JMS means?

[Jan]

Yes, the understanding I get from reading his message is that what's needed is a red tape cutter/bureaucracy buster - that they *know* what course of treatment they want to pursue but aren't able to convince the PTBs.

Jan

[Andrew_Swallow]

It sounds like an experimental drug. Prior to general approval they may need authorisation to use it. New operations may be going the same way.

[KaCHING64]

I have a friend who works as an administrative assistant in the Canadian Ministry of Health. Her suggestion was to contact the family's representative in Parliament (presumably for the region where the family in question lives) and appeal to him/her to contact the Canadian Minister of Health directly on their behalf in hopes of elevating the situation for a more focused and immediate resolution. She has seen this happen in the past - sometimes successfully.

Despite JMS's specific criteria for being contacted in the matter, I reluctantly emailed him with the above suggestion. I hope his friend's family is successful in getting a positive and timely resolution.

KaCHING64