Thursday, June 18, 2009

To the Heart of the Matter

I've talked about the Isotope crisis before, going back as far as Dec 2007 which we thought THEN was a crisis, but that was a walk in the park because it last just a month. Thus far the current crisis is 5 weeks in and will easily go, according to some report from 3 - 8 months. Other reports indicate it will go near a year.

I've mentioned it before and I'll do so again. Without viable and acceptable amounts of radioactive medical isotopes, people will go undiagnosed or at the very least undiagnosed in time. And it is conceivable due to this lack of timely diagnosis that people could die un-necessarily.

Case in point:

I was speaking to one of my clients today. She works in a clinic in metropolitan Toronto. When the shortage of isotopes began clinics and hospitals alike needed to cancel, or rather postpone some tests. In the case at this one clinic a gentleman's cardiac test was re-booked a week later.

Unfortunately when the day came for the rebooked test, there was not the necessary product available and so once again he was re-booked. The test was for this Tuesday.

He suffered a heart attack on Monday.

In this case the man was fortunate in that he survived. But even when you survive the damage can be irreversible.

I urge you to contact your MP, the Prime Minister, Health Minister, and demand that more be done to resolve this crisis. Immediately.

1 comment:

Bruno Laliberté said...

he may have survived, but this attack brings him one step closer to his maker. so, it's not like he survived & remained where he was before the attack. the whole thing is just a shame. couldn't they have found alternative sources before closing their main source, & implement them?
stoopid!
just-plai-stoopid!!
:(~