Fort St. John mother raises alarm about state of health care after son's injury allegedly mishandled

A Fort St. John, B.C., mother is speaking out after she says her son failed to get the care he needed during a visit to the local emergency room.

Their story has prompted dozens of other people to weigh in with similar experiences, sparking calls for a review of the level of care available in the northeastern B.C. city.

It started May 6 when Melanie Jansen's 15-year-old son, Hudson, fell while riding his bike around their neighbourhood.

She said his leg swelled up to roughly three times the size of his other and he reported extreme levels of pain.

"He just kept saying, "Mom, there's something's wrong.... This doesn't feel right,'" she said. "He's a 15-year-old boy who tries to tough things out and he was like, 'Mom, let's go to the hospital.' And that's very rare."

They were quickly triaged and her son was given X-rays. She said they then wound up waiting more than five hours before getting any followup, in the form of a hallway visit with a doctor who recommend crutches, a tensor bandage and pain killer before getting sent home.

But the next day, Jansen received an urgent message from the same doctor who said Hudson needed urgent care.

"She said, 'OK, we've gone over the X-rays and you need to get back to the hospital immediately because you need a splint,'" Jansen recalled.

She was worried they would once again face long waits but said the doctor assured her they would be seen right away. She also played a voicemail for CBC News from the doctor confirming the hospital had been contacted and was aware of the need for Hudson to be seen immediately.

'Why is that leg not splinted?'

However, upon arrival, they saw a second doctor who Jansen said told them he wanted to consult with an orthopedic surgeon at a neighbouring hospital in Dawson Creek prior to making any changes to Hudson's care.

After waiting more than five hours again, Jansen said they were told the surgeon was unavailable, and Hudson was sent home with no splint and no new knowledge of what was going on.

It wasn't until May 14, more than a week after his initial injury, that Hudson was finally able to see an orthopedic surgeon who was visiting Dawson Creek, a 74-kilometre drive from Fort St. John. 

"The first thing the surgeon said was, 'Why is that leg not splinted?'" Jansen said. "And we were like, 'Because the hospital sent us home without one."

A closer review, Jansen said, found that Hudson had broken a bone — information she hadn't previously been given — and that because his leg hadn't been set in place, the injury had been exacerbated with the break getting wider and wider.

Now, they are facing several weeks of waiting to see if the damage can heal on its own or if her 15-year-old son will need surgery to fix the problem.

Frustrated, Jansen shared her experience in a personal Facebook post. To her surprise, it picked up steam, attracting dozens of comments from people with similar stories of being unable to get the care they needed in Fort St. John.

Jansen said she's not sure of the reasons for the alleged failures but it seems clear to her something needs to change.

"It's not just about the wait times, it's about 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 people with similar stories, she said she has also been contacted by patient advocacy groups and her MLA, Jordan Kealy, for support on the file.

Kealy told CBC News health-care concerns are the number one issue facing people living in his riding and that he personally decided to get into politics after his own family experienced barriers getting help.

"This isn't just a 'right now' problem that's happened, this has been adding up," he said. "It's very difficult to deal with some of the scenarios and they aren't easy fixes."

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

The largest city in the region, its ER has seen frequent closures, including five nights in a single week in July 2024.

As recently as May 14, residents were advised that the city's emergency department was facing long wait times, with people urged to avoid visiting if at all possible.

But Jansen, who has five children, said there are few alternatives. Despite living in Fort St. John for most of the past 45 years, she has instead relied on a family doctor she got in Salmon Arm, a community a more than 1,000 km drive away, that she got while living there from 2012 to 2020.

"You want to rely on this system," she said. "You want to believe that they're going to give you the care and not send you home when it's not safe to go home.... What kind of system do we have here that's so broken?"

Northern Health says case has been reviewed

CBC News has been unable to speak to either of the doctors, nor the orthopedic surgeon Jansen and her son saw. 

In a statement, Northern Health said it is unable to comment on individual cases but that it takes "any concerns raised about quality of care very seriously."

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

"In general, decisions about patient care are made by the attending physician or specialist. Patients who have questions or concerns about the care they, or a loved one, have received are best to first speak with the person who provided the service, or to the manager of the area. Complaints are best addressed and resolved at the time and place they occur," Northern Health said.

The statement also said complaints could be formally registered with the authority's patient care quality office.

Jansen said she had not been made aware a review of their case had taken place, nor what the results were. 

She also said she's been overwhelmed by the response she's gotten to her story and is hoping it can be a platform to help advocate for improved patient outcomes in her city and across the province.

"We deserve to have health care we can trust," she said. "Many people have been paying an awful price."