'I'm very, very scared for his health': Sask. mom worried child might die before surgery

A Saskatchewan woman is worried her child might die before receiving life-saving surgery and tests as he sits on the province's surgical waitlist.

"I'm scared he's going to die in the meantime," Terry Hallet said. "Because that's our reality is the only thing that's going to save him right now is surgery."

Hallett's eight-year-old son Logan has been sick for roughly a year. Even though she's been a licensed practical nurse for 25 years in a variety of sectors of healthcare, she wasn't expecting how difficult it would be to navigate the healthcare system and see a professional as Logan's condition worsened.

"I'm very, very scared for his health, my health, my parents' health," she said. "Because it's not a matter of if the health care system is going to crumble, it's when. That's the state we're in now."

Hallett said it took until June to have Logan diagnosed with chiari malformation, in which a part of the brain presses down or bulges through an opening in the skull that joins the spinal cord.

Logan was originally told he would get a call back about surgery in one to three months, but that's since been pushed back, and Hallet has been warned her son could be further bumped as more urgent cases arise.

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Hallet said doctors have been great to deal with, and as much as the neurosurgeon wants to help, she told Hallet she is only scheduled to operate one day per month.

"I can hear their frustration, and she just wishes she could do more to get him in faster, but she just can't," Hallet said. "The resources aren't there."

NDP candidate Vicki Mowat said more and more people in Saskatchewan are dying waiting for surgery.

"There needs to be political will to add capacity within these sectors of our system," Mowat said.

"We need to make sure that we staff up to full capacity so that we can address the health care needs of the kids of our province."

According to independent research institute SecondStreet.org, a study from last year between April 1, 2022 and March 31, 2023 found 402 Saskatchewan people died while waiting for surgery — second-most per capita among reporting Canadian provinces.

Mowat said that's 2,511 per cent higher than the number reported in Alberta.

She also said the number of people dying on waitlists here has increased 66 per cent over the past five years.

In its election platform, the NDP committed to spend $1.1 billion on healthcare over the next, if elected following Monday's provincial election.

Saskatchewan Party leader Scott Moe countered the NDP spending plan by saying over the past four years, the provincial government has spent $1.8 billion on healthcare.

"Unlike the NDP, we won't cut healthcare, and we won't make commitments that we're not prepared to keep," Moe said.

As far as staffing and keeping hospitals running efficiently, Moe said the province's human health resource action plan created two years ago will help spur further hiring and retention.

"We have funded that plan with excess of $300 million that are providing incentives, providing opportunity, providing over 800 training opportunities for our children to train and to work and offer, health care services in a Saskatchewan community," Moe siad.

Fed up with inaction, Hallett picked up the phone on Monday to tell the NDP of her story. She says leader Carla Beck called her roughly an hour later. With few people to talk to about her struggles, she says the call helped make one decision easier.

"I was an undecided voter prior to her calling me directly, but not anymore," Hallett said.