An advocate for patients of New Brunswick’s alleged mystery neurological disease says the province’s health minister has not been honest with her.
Stacey Quigley Cormier became an advocate after her stepdaughter Gabrielle’s condition continued to decline years after she was diagnosed by a doctor with a mystery neurological illness.
“She sleeps about 16 hours a day, she still uses the wheelchair when needed and the cane all the time,” Quigley Cormier said about Gabrielle.
“We’re focusing on quality of life.”
The previous PC government had shut down the investigation into the illness in February 2022, after dozens of New Brunswickers reported degenerative neurological symptoms.
The Blaine Higgs government said a team of neurologists and other health experts found no such disease existed.
Quigley Cormier says she and other patients and advocates were emotional when incoming Premier Susan Holt announced a new scientific review in late 2024.
“We were just hopeful that we were going to move forward with the investigation in an unbiased way. And it’s really sad and infuriating, to be honest, that we’re learning that that’s not the case,” she said.
Moncton neurologist Dr. Allier Marrero first raised the alarm on the alleged disease but was dismissed from the Mind Clinic, which was treating many of the patients, in the summer of 2022.
Quigley Cormier says she had a recent meeting with Health Minister Dr. John Dornan, who was CEO of Horizon Health at the time of Marrero’s dismissal.
“I asked him if he had any part in the removal of Dr. Marrero from the mind clinic and he said no,” she said.
However, Global News has obtained a letter from July 2022 informing Marrero he was being dismissed, which was singed by Dornan.
Cormier Quigley says she and other advocates want Premier Holt to give the Public Health Agency of Canada to oversee the investigation.
“In terms of the letter that I had sent to Dr. Marrero I had forgotten that I had sent that letter,” Dornan said.
“In terms of reclusion no, I am the minister of health. I am responsible for what happens in health in this province.”