CANADIAN HEALTH CARE KILLS MS HOPES

Angélique Gazey

ATTENTION CITIZENS OF CANADA – I bring you news of a horrific event, a crime of sorts happening this very moment in our Country. For the past 19 years my mother has been slowly robbed of her life. She was first robbed of her eyesight, affecting her ability to complete daily tasks, to witness her own children grow into adulthood, and to see her husband take his last breath of air. She then was slowly robbed of her mobility which has resulted in her requiring full time care in a nursing home, - she’s only 62. Early this year she was stripped of her ability to eat for the rest of her life. She is now fed through a feeding tube and will no longer enjoy the pleasures of taste. Her captor? ...Multiple Sclerosis. The greatest robbery of all however, the most horrific and horrendous deprivation to her this very day, is happening by a complete overt denial of her civil liberties. While health is never guaranteed to us, and we all experience tragic losses, our civil liberties are etched in stone, and protected to us in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. My mother however, is being robbed of that protection.

I am my mother’s daughter, her voice as she can't be heard, and it is of her that I write on behalf of. She lays in a bed in a nursing home and on occasion she musters enough strength and energy to sit in her wheelchair. She has challenges speaking these days, not because she’s deaf or mute, but due to challenges swallowing her own saliva. She risks dying of aspiration pneumonia every single day.

Once upon a time, my mother Barb, was a young vivacious woman, appealing to the eye with her sparkling light eyes and dark contrasting hair, complimented by a petite physique. Her character has often been described to me by those who were once close to her as the ‘life of a party, a true social butterfly who loved to live life to the fullest’. The little I can recall of my mother being healthy rings true to those descriptions. It has been almost twenty years now that my own life has dramatically changed forever. I was ten years old when my father sat me on his lap, and tearfully shared the news, “Your mother has Multiple Sclerosis”.

After years of countless treatments, many of which were experimental trials of various drugs, my mother’s health continued to decline. Her symptoms began in 1990 with problems with her vision, tremors, and tingle sensations in her hands and feet. Her symptoms worsened over time, creating new challenges with balance and her memory. Within just a few short years she became completely dependent on a wheelchair. No treatments helped. It wasn’t until Dr. O’Connor, the leading neurologist at St. Mike’s Hospital explicitly said, “Your mother’s symptoms will worsen slowly without remission” that our family decided that mom would no longer be used as a guinea pig in trial experiments for treatments that proved time and time again to fail her.

The recent new findings of Dr. Zamboni in Italy, and gaining popularity in the medical world as a condition called CCSVI, identifies an additional medical issue commonly found in most people with MS; a narrowing of veins, affecting the proper flow of blood throughout their system, particularly in the area of drainage from the brain. The consequence? A toxic buildup of iron levels in the brain. While Dr. Zamboni’s research is in relation to MS, toxic iron levels are not new to the medical world. For example, toxic levels of iron in the brain have also been implicated in other known diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Epilepsy and Autism, just to name a few. And as with most of those illnesses, many symptoms experienced by patients just happen to be the same, reported symptoms experienced by those with MS.

What is the treatment? Angioplasty: a technique used to open up arterial blockages. It is a well known technique, and a very simple procedure that is safely performed here in Canada every single day. While the use of this procedure to treat conditions such as MS is relatively new, the procedure itself is not. It has been an approved procedure here in Canada for many years, and continues to be a common form of practice in the treatment of heart related diseases. People with MS however, have been forced to cross international borders and travel around the world in order to receive this treatment. Many of them, such as Paul Stock of Toronto who recently made front page news in last weekend’s Sunday Star, and Barb Farrell of Barrie who has been making headlines in the Barrie Examiner since her angioplasty, have returned home citing improvements to their health, specifically in reference to symptoms that have previously been associated with their MS. People around the world with MS, now dubbed, “MSers” continue to report improvements to their motor skills, their speech, their energy levels, and their overall mobility after having had the angioplasty. Although this treatment may not necessarily prove as a curative measure to MS itself, it may finally allow those with MS to join the masses that take for granted the most humble ability of all... standing on their own two feet.'

The controversy over Dr. Zamboni’s research and his direct links to Multiple Sclerosis, has caused an unfortunate sandstorm in the medical field, affecting a wide array of stakeholders that includes surgeons, physicians, pharmaceutical companies, medical facilities, and the MS Society as well. The outcome of such a sandstorm? A complete ban on the procedure from being performed on people with MS. Doctors and Surgeons in support of performing angioplasty to treat blocked veins amongst people with MS have been silenced and stopped in their tracks. Barb Farrell for example, was days away from receiving her angioplasty with the full support of her vascular surgeon Dr. Sandy McDonald when it was suddenly cancelled. Letters from Clinics and Hospitals, controlled by their private sector stakeholders have advised that ‘more time is needed for research’.

Time is a luxury that MSers, as well as those experiencing other critical debilitating diseases, do not have. The question has to be asked, ‘Why is a well known procedure, currently approved of and performed in our Country being denied to people with MS’? The benefits of proper circulation and drainage of blood from the brain is not difficult to comprehend. Angioplasty would not exist as a current acceptable procedure for any medical condition otherwise. Dr. Sandy McDonald took his concerns to Parliament, and in his testimony offered clear evidence of the benefits of such a procedure to many of his patients. The science is already there, and the benefits have already been proven. The science is no longer the critical issue at hand. The issue has become a more fundamental one, related to Human Rights. Since angioplasty is a procedure already being used in this Country by our current medical system to treat other conditions, people with MS have the right to receive it as well. Any denial of this is a violation of Section 15 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

15. (1) Every individual is equal before and under the law and has the right to the equal protection and equal benefit of the law without discrimination and, in particular, without discrimination based on race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, sex, age or mental or physical disability..

People with MS deserve equal protection by law, particularly in reference to our health care system as it exists today. Any refusal to treat them for the mere fact that they have MS is an overt form of discrimination, and violation to what is guaranteed to us in the Charter.

My mother recently found out that in addition to MS, she also has Leukemia. Her days are becoming numbered, and quite quickly too. With her MS at a very severe and advanced stage, Chemotherapy does not look like a promising treatment for her Cancer. There’s the high risk that she would never survive it. She’s not naïve to the possible outcomes of her illnesses, but she remains hopeful on the knowledge and science behind treating blocked veins. As a citizen of this country, and once a contributing member of our society and our economy for years, she deserves equal treatment and protection by our law. She has every right to receive angioplasty just as much as a patient who is going in for heart surgery.

Nobody with MS is expecting cures. It has more to do with quality of life, and being protected by the laws that uphold those rights. My mother is losing her ability to speak as she focuses all her energy on being able to clear her throat from her own phlegm. She receives her daily nutrition from a feeding tube inserted directly into her stomach, taking away the ability for her to enjoy taste for the rest of her life. The politics brewing in the science of neurology and amongst the various stakeholders involved should have no bearing on upholding basic rights and freedoms, and accessibility to treatment for Canadian Citizens. A violation of this is not exactly the type of taste my mother is willing to let sit on her tongue, as her ‘Last Supper’. No Canadian Citizen is deserving of such a fowl taste.

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On July 2^nd 2010 the organization Angioplasty for All was formed in Toronto Ontario. The purpose of the organization is to help Canadians diagnosed with multiple sclerosis have equal access to medical treatment (specifically in reference to angioplasty). With legal representation by renowned Ottawa Civil Rights Lawyer, Edward Conway, Angioplasty for All is challenging the Charter of Rights and Freedoms on behalf of people with MS. Our ultimate goal is to seek 'equal protection and equal benefit of the law without discrimination'.PEOPLE WITH MS DESERVE EQUAL ACCESS TO MEDICAL TREATMENT WITHOUT DISCRIMINATION!

WE CAN USE YOUR HELP - PLEASE SUPPORT OUR CASE AND OUR CAUSE!

www.angioplastyforall.com

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A bank account of the corporation has been established at the Royal Bank of Canada - Don Mills and Lawrence.

You can also make a deposit by visiting a local RBC Branch, using the account information below:

They will deposit your donation into the corporate account.

http://angeliquemichelle.webs.com/angioplastyforall.htm