Sask. mom takes daughter’s health-care issues to legislature

Sarah Turnbull’s daughter, Blake, hid behind her pink skirt at times while Sarah explained her frustration and exhaustion over health-care pauses and cancellations.

Blake is 2 1/2 years old and has been getting surgeries and therapies for spina bifida — services that ended up being paused when Saskatchewan’s health-care system was slowed down due to the fourth wave of COVID-19.

“I can get my hair cut, I can go to a (Saskatchewan Roughriders) game and other kids can go play soccer, but my daughter is unable to receive her much-needed physical therapy. How is that rated less important and less of a priority than recreational sports?” Turnbull asked Thursday at the Saskatchewan legislature.

Blake lost her physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy due to the slowdown. The family also lost access to the spinal cord clinic where her neurological and orthopedic specialists were. A tendon release surgery for Blake was put on hold as well.

When Turnbull got the word that appointments would be cancelled, it wasn’t a shock.

“You could see what was happening. You could also see our government not doing anything. So it wasn’t a huge surprise because it didn’t come out of nowhere,” said Turnbull.

She also doesn’t think the government made the right call in at first refusing help from the federal government when the federal health minister offered.

It was frustrating, in part, because Turnbull feels her daughter’s services are always the first to go.

“Our services aren’t luxury services, in my opinion. I think developmental services are very important,” said Turnbull.

“It really sucks when you hear people complaining about not being able to play sports and you’re worried about physically developing. It’s like, ‘OK, we’ll get to soccer after we can get to walking,’ ” she said with a short laugh.

With the health system ramping up services this month, Turnbull said they do have an appointment scheduled for the coming weeks. But she’s nervous because she doesn’t trust the government will protect the health-care system – which is a particular concern for Blake because she has a shunt in her brain that has a high fail rate.

“It’s just frightful knowing that you’re going to a place to keep you safe and there might not be the staff or the capabilities to be there,” Turnbull said. “And the wait time for her specifically — the pressure builds up in her brain and she could get brain damage from the inside out the longer her device isn’t working — so the longer we wait for that particular thing, it’s very frightening as a mom.”

Turnbull was brought to the Legislative Building by the NDP to tell her story in front of government officials. Turnbull said she wanted to talk to the government because she’s sick of being a pawn in their “game of politics and ego.”

“I think it’s important for people to face the families and to see that we’re not just these vague numbers and that we are people. Our futures matter,” said Turnbull. “I think all that stuff is out of sight out of mind, and sometimes you have to come here and be a good example to say that we do matter, we’re not disposable (and) we’re not low-hanging fruit.”

Speaking later, Health Minister Paul Merriman said he understands what Turnbull and her family are going through.

“Any pause in programs or services that are offered by the government or privately, if any of those are paused, that can cause a ripple effect,” said Merriman.

If health-care services do have to be paused again, Merriman said the government will try to stay away from kids’ services.

“It’s not something that we had a playbook on before,” he said. “It’s certainly something that we’re learning on — what to focus on (and) what areas we can pull people out of that have the minimal amount of impact.”