The Impossible System - Canadian Healthcare at a Glance

One of the most pivotal lessons of my life to date has been that you are your own best advocate. If you don't care enough to fight for what you need, nobody else will. Advocating for your health can take various forms: persistently visiting doctors to communicate your concerns, accurately conveying the severity of your condition, advocating for necessary diagnostic tests, ensuring timely access to healthcare services, exploring all possible options before proceeding with treatment, asking probing questions to assess the competence of healthcare providers, seeking second opinions when appropriate, and diligently following through on recommended treatments.

The title of my forthcoming book "Trust Your Doctor" is ironically contrary to its message, it is an antiphrasis.  It's inspired by encounters with several doctors, primarily in Edmonton but also across Alberta and Canada, whose conduct was, frankly, inappropriate, incompetent, and shameful. This issue isn't isolated; it's systemic. Often, there's an implied trust in the doctor-patient relationship, leading patients to unquestioningly accept treatment proposals. However, it's the patients who suffer when unscrupulous doctors prioritize their own interests over patient care. Not all doctors fall into this category; many are dedicated professionals genuinely concerned about their patients. But it's crucial to identify and approach with caution those who do not have patients' best interests at heart. I've embarked on writing this book to shed light on this pervasive problem.

The failure of the healthcare system in my case is threefold. Firstly, I was incorrectly diagnosed, treated, had unnecessary surgeries and obtained permanent irreversible neurological damage as a result. Secondly, I fought hard to try to get a second opinion at every turn and this was ultimately met with roadblocks and rejections in a system that can barely handle one opinion from a specialist, never mind a second opinion. Thirdly, there's a lack of systematic approach to rare illnesses in Canada, leaving patients vulnerable to inadequate treatment options. A possible solution is an international panel of multidisciplinary experts to be convened in order to shed light on the best possible treatment for a patient. If you happen to get sick with a rare disease, you will face either morbidity or mortality while dealing with doctors that lack the experience and technology to adequately treat you. My lived experience stands as a testament to these shortcomings, supported by ample evidence.

So how did I manage to save my life in this impossible system? By going outside it. That is not to say that I did it all on my own, I am immensely grateful to so many people for their incredible support, information and advice. I had a lot of help along the way. But I could best try to describe it as making life and death decisions while chained to the train tracks with a train coming and no way to get free. Not only was this an impossible situation in terms of trying to get competent care in Canada, but also it was dealing with incredible financial hardship to get the necessary care outside this country and ultimately getting nothing back from the Out-of-Country Health Committee or any other source that should compensate for insurable health services.

Financial hardships aside though, what ultimately saved my life is trusting the right doctor who had the talent, experience and an incredible team of experts to pull off this miracle procedure. Dr Paul Gardner, Dr David Hamilton and Dr Carl Snyderman at UPMC in Pittsburgh PA turned my health around one-hundred and eighty degrees after the disaster surgeries in Edmonton. They gave me more time with my daughter, more time to realize my dreams; their impact on my life is immeasurable. As a Canadian, it's difficult to reconcile how American healthcare outshone Canadian healthcare in my case. But the truth speaks for itself.

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