B.C. mother raises alarm about state of health care after son's injury allegedly mishandled

Andrew Kurjata · CBC News

· Posted: May 20, 2025 8:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 4 hours ago

A Fort St. John, B.C., parent is speaking retired aft she says her lad failed to get the attraction helium needed during a sojourn to the section exigency room.

Their communicative has prompted dozens of different radical to measurement successful with akin experiences, sparking calls for a reappraisal of the level of attraction disposable successful the northeastern B.C. city.

It started May 6 when Melanie Jansen's 15-year-old son, Hudson, fell portion riding his motorcycle astir their neighbourhood.

She said his limb swelled up to astir 3 times the size of his different and helium reported utmost levels of pain.

"He conscionable kept saying, "Mom, there's something's wrong.... This doesn't consciousness right,'" she said. "He's a 15-year-old lad who tries to pugnacious things retired and helium was like, 'Mom, let's spell to the hospital.' And that's precise rare."

They were rapidly triaged and her lad was fixed X-rays. She said they then coiled up waiting much than 5 hours earlier getting immoderate followup, successful the signifier of a hallway sojourn with a doc who urge crutches, a tensor bandage and symptom slayer earlier getting sent home.

But the adjacent day, Jansen received an urgent connection from the aforesaid doc who said Hudson needed urgent care.

"She said, 'OK, we've gone implicit the X-rays and you request to get backmost to the infirmary instantly due to the fact that you request a splint,'" Jansen recalled.

She was disquieted they would erstwhile again look agelong waits but said the doc assured her they would beryllium seen close away. She also played a voicemail for CBC News from the doc confirming the infirmary had been contacted and was alert of the request for Hudson to beryllium seen immediately.

'Why is that limb not splinted?'

However, upon arrival, they saw a 2nd doc who Jansen said told them helium wanted to consult with an orthopedic surgeon at a neighbouring infirmary successful Dawson Creek anterior to making immoderate changes to Hudson's care.

After waiting much than 5 hours again, Jansen said they were told the surgeon was unavailable, and Hudson was sent location with nary splint and nary caller cognition of what was going on.

It wasn't until May 14, more than a week aft his archetypal injury, that Hudson was yet capable to spot an orthopedic surgeon who was visiting Dawson Creek, a 74-kilometre thrust from Fort St. John. 

"The archetypal happening the surgeon said was, 'Why is that limb not splinted?'" Jansen said. "And we were like, 'Because the infirmary sent america location without one."

A person review, Jansen said, recovered that Hudson had breached a bone — accusation she hadn't antecedently been given — and that due to the fact that his limb hadn't been acceptable successful place, the wounded had been exacerbated with the interruption getting wider and wider.

Now, they are facing respective weeks of waiting to spot if the harm tin heal connected its own or if her 15-year-old lad volition request country to hole the problem.

Frustrated, Jansen shared her acquisition successful a idiosyncratic Facebook post. To her surprise, it picked up steam, attracting dozens of comments from radical with akin stories of being incapable to get the attraction they needed successful Fort St. John.

Jansen said she's not definite of the reasons for the alleged failures but it seems wide to her thing needs to change.

"It's not conscionable astir the hold times, it's astir the care," Jensen said. "People are being misdiagnosed. People aren't being diagnosed. People aren't being helped.... It's heartbreaking."

Health-care crunch

Aside from radical with akin stories, she said she has also been contacted by diligent advocacy groups and her MLA, Jordan Kealy, for enactment connected the file.

Kealy told CBC News health-care concerns are the fig 1 contented facing radical surviving successful his riding and that helium personally decided to get into authorities aft his ain household experienced barriers getting help.

"This isn't conscionable a 'right now' occupation that's happened, this has been adding up," helium said. "It's precise hard to woody with immoderate of the scenarios and they aren't casual fixes."

Like galore parts of B.C., Fort St. John is facing a health-care crunch.

The largest metropolis successful the region, its ER has seen predominant closures, including 5 nights successful a azygous week successful July 2024.

As precocious arsenic May 14, residents were advised that the city's exigency section was facing agelong hold times, with radical urged to avoid visiting if astatine each possible.

But Jansen, who has 5 children, said determination are fewer alternatives. Despite surviving successful Fort St. John for astir of the past 45 years, she has alternatively relied connected a household doc she got successful Salmon Arm, a community a much than 1,000 km thrust away, that she got portion surviving determination from 2012 to 2020.

"You privation to trust connected this system," she said. "You privation to judge that they're going to springiness you the attraction and not nonstop you location erstwhile it's not harmless to spell home.... What benignant of strategy bash we person present that's truthful broken?"

Northern Health says lawsuit has been reviewed

CBC News has been incapable to talk to either of the doctors, nor the orthopedic surgeon Jansen and her lad saw. 

In a statement, Northern Health said it is incapable to remark connected idiosyncratic cases but that it takes "any concerns raised astir prime of attraction precise seriously."

It said the lawsuit had been reviewed but that it would not beryllium sharing the specifics of what was found.

"In general, decisions astir diligent attraction are made by the attending doc oregon specialist. Patients who person questions oregon concerns astir the attraction they, oregon a loved one, person received are champion to archetypal talk with the idiosyncratic who provided the service, oregon to the manager of the area. Complaints are champion addressed and resolved astatine the clip and spot they occur," Northern Health said.

The connection besides said complaints could beryllium formally registered with the authority's diligent attraction prime office.

Jansen said she had not been made alert a reappraisal of their lawsuit had taken place, nor what the results were. 

She besides said she's been overwhelmed by the effect she's gotten to her story and is hoping it tin beryllium a platform to assistance advocator for improved diligent outcomes successful her metropolis and crossed the province.

"We merit to have health attraction we tin trust," she said. "Many radical person been paying an atrocious price."