Helen is 11 months old, likely has cerebral palsy, and can’t get the treatment she needs.
“My worry right now is what kind of long-lasting effect this will have,” her father Graham Dickson told Global News.
Dickson said doctors told him they couldn’t provide an exact diagnosis yet because they are waiting to conduct more tests, including an MRI in November.
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But that was cancelled, he said, when the Saskatchewan Health Authority announced on Sept. 23 that it was slowing and postponing services to redirect resources to the overwhelmed intensive care units treating patients with COVID-19.
Dickson said Helen is developmentally delayed. Whereas most 11-month-olds are crawling, Helen is only grasping her feet.
She’s also cross-eyed and her reflexes are well behind where they should be, Dickson said. He told Global News doctors said this likely points to some kind of disconnect between her brain and her motor function. She was due for an MRI in November.
Dickson said one source of solace was Helen’s physiotherapy treatments, which took place once a month.
But he learned on Thursday, during what would be Helen’s last appointment, that rest of the treatments were postponed indefinitely because the SHA is redeploying staff from there as well.
The SHA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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COVID-19 — Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe rejects calls for gathering restrictions
Dickson blames Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe.
He said the government could have prevented the buildup of COVID-19 cases if it had implemented more public health restrictions sooner.
On Thursday, Moe announced the province is reorganizing how it responds to the pandemic.
When asked why he wasn’t implementing limits on gathering sizes, the premier said “we’re not going to be implementing broad-based restrictions on … over 70 per cent (of the population) that are considered fully vaccinated.”
Dickson called that “an absolute fallacy.”
“The people who are being punished by this inaction are the most vulnerable people, like my daughter.”
Global News has reached out to Moe’s office for comment.