Sask. kids relying on specialized pediatric unit left in limbo as doctor departs

A Saskatchewan pediatric gastrointestinal unit may soon have no doctor left to staff it, leaving patients and their families scrambling for answers.

Dr. Simone Nicol, the only remaining pediatric GI, will wind down her services by May 12, according to an auto response from the physician.

It was news that Dean Fleck was surprised to hear. His son, Mason, became a patient of Dr. Nicol after he started having troubles three years ago.

“He had just really bad stomachaches and he was really weak during the day,” Fleck said. “A lot of times he'd have to go and lay down at the school office. After about six months, he dropped probably 20 pounds. So he was really skeletal, super thin, just really unhealthy and a really big distended belly.”

Fleck said their family doctor was not able to arrive at an accurate diagnosis.

“We were having a little bit of trouble kind of finding help here and then we went to the emergency room in Saskatoon. We actually drove from Regina. Somebody kind of tipped us off that we should probably do that because he was in pretty bad shape. Through that, one of the doctors there said 'Yeah, he looks really bad. We need to see him immediately.' Then Dr. Nicol was brought in to assess him.”

Fleck said it was then that things turned around for Mason.

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“As far as treatment goes, she was just amazingly helpful. I think he was the first in the province to try the specific treatment where I think for six weeks he didn't eat anything except for soup broth and then a specialized kind of nutrient liquid. After six weeks of that, it allowed his inflammation in the system to go down.”

Since then, Fleck said they’ve been driving from Regina to the Jim Pattison Children's Hospital in Saskatoon for infusions.

“It's probably three to four hours, every four weeks of Remicade and he's on some other immunosuppressant drugs as well. But that's kind of the main treatment that he's on. That was about three years ago, and he's slowly kind of put on weight. He's been in remission for probably three years and has been doing fairly well.”

Fleck said they found out about the clinic closing during one of these trips.

“Losing her is a little terrifying because it's like well who's going to do that now,” Fleck said. “Obviously he's going to have to search for another doctor in another province if they shut down the entire pediatric GI unit here.”

“I appreciate the frustration and burden this may place on the over 1000 patients ... the Saskatchewan Department of Pediatrics and SHA are working on alternate solutions for provision of pediatric gastroenterology services going forward,” Dr. Nicols' auto response said.

“At this time, the Saskatchewan Division of Pediatric Gastroenterology is unable to accommodate any new referrals or consults and we will be discharging all patients from pediatric gastroenterology care,” Dr. Nicol’s auto response said.

The Saskatchewan Health Authority said it was “actively engaged with candidates who are considering joining our team.”

“The Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) is committed to ensuring Saskatchewan has the health professionals needed to provide the necessary health services for residents across the province,” an emailed SHA statement to CTV News said.

"In the interim, the SHA’s leadership team is working with other provinces to implement a remote service delivery plan similar to what we had in place in the past," the statement said.

Fleck said the specialist's departure has created a lot of uncertainty for his family.

“It's a chronic disease. So for a lot of it, there's no cure. So as far as we know, Mason will be on medication and Remicade for the rest of his life.”

He said he didn’t know if they could find another specialist in another province.

“I'm not confident that there's going to be a department in Calgary or the Edmonton Children's Hospital that's going to be willing to take on hundreds of other caseloads of kids from Saskatchewan.”

To compound the problem, Fleck said his other son was now starting to show signs he may have the same condition as his older brother.

“He's experiencing some similarities with symptoms that Mason was around that age. So puts us in a position where it's even more terrifying because it's like, well, you know, by the grace of God Mason kind of made it out of it and into treatment. But now we're facing another son going into it going to be even more of a challenge to figure out care for him on top of trying to find care for Mason.”