Father of Nain infant with TB says it took too long to airlift him to hospital

The father of a young child in Naindiagnosed with tuberculosisis questioning why it took so long to have his son airlifted to hospital in Happy Valley-Goose Bay.

Derrick McLean's 16-month-old Bryson was treated at the JanewayHospitalin St. John's this spring for meningitis linked to TB, where doctors installed a shunt to help drain fluids on his brain.

He returned to Nain, but on Friday started showing symptoms that fluid might be building up again, which McLean says could be life threatening if it continues.

Poor weather prevented an air ambulance from flying Bryson out of Nain until Sunday morning, but McLeansays a military search and rescue helicopter should have been called in to help before then.

"I don't know why they wouldn't have got a chopper flown up there on day two, especially considering the situation and him just coming out of the Janeway about three weeks ago," he said.

"He might be alright, and he might not be. I don't understand why they're taking such a gamble with his life."

A clinical decision

While he maintained that he hadn't looked into this particular case, Health Minister John Haggiesaid that decisions about when and how to evacuate a patient are based on the medical situation at the time.

"The decision as to how fast and how rapidly somebody needs to be medevaced from any location is a clinical one," Haggietold reporters Monday.

"It's not made by anybody except the health care providers on the ground, and the person to whom that patient is being referred."

Medevacs and patient transfers on land are the responsibility of the province, although Newfoundland and Labrador health officials have repeatedly called in the military for help in the past.

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"If search and rescue were not called in, my assumption from where Iam is that that was not a degree of priority that was reflected in the clinical case," Haggie said.

The helicopter contracted to handle provincial medevac services has been assessed to have a "maximum reliability" of 20 per cent because it can't fly at night or in bad weather.

The situation in Nain is unique, Haggie said, because it can only be accessed at night by a search-and-rescue helicopter.Its airstrip doesn't have a Transport Canada permit to operate at night.

The Nunatsiavut government has asked the federal government for a new airstrip that would allow for night landings, he said.

Frustrating ordeal

McLean said his frustration beganbefore Brysonwas even diagnosed with TB, and he was repeatedly told that his son's pain was the result of other things, such as teething.

It was only after a 14-year-old boy in the community died of TB that McLeansaid staff considered that his illnessmight berelated to the disease, after McLeantold them that the boy who died visited their home quite often.

The health clinic in Nain is staffed by nurses, but not a full-time doctor. That's why McLean felt it was so important to get Bryson on a flightto Happy Valley-Goose Bay.

He said he told his partner to stay at the clinic until they found him a flight.

Frightening situation

McLeansaid he realizes that it's not that easy or cheap to mobilize a search and rescue chopper, but it shouldn't be a question when someone'slifeisat stake, especially a child's.

"It is frightening. Not only that but it's frustrating because it doesn't look like they take people's lives seriously," he said.

"I know that everything might be alright, but he only came out of the Janeway three weeks ago and he had the situation before and almost died. I don't know why they're not pushing for it again."