Local mom speaks out after daughter in wheelchair following misdiagnosis

“She had like, a cough and I’m pretty sure she had something in her lungs, like an upper- respiratory thing so I took her into the doctor,” said Olivia’s mom Naomi MacAloney-Cardinal of their initial trip to the Battlefords Union Hospital.

“He said she was most likely just faking.”

The cough continued and a month later they were back at the hospital.

“They said the same thing, ‘There’s nothing wrong, she’s fine’ I don’t even think they looked at her throat that time,” said MacAloney-Cardinal.

On the third trip at roughly the end of January, they went to a walk-in where Olivia had a chest X-Ray to see if it was pneumonia. The week later, Olivia lost her ability to walk as her knees were swollen and she was in a lot of pain.

“The doctor here said that she probably has (Streptococcus pneumoniae) in her blood or something so they did a test for her blood and sent us home before we got the results back because they needed the bed,” she said.

At that point, the five-year-old still couldn’t walk and her mom thought their return home was a mistake. Last Saturday, she took her daughter to the Jim Pattison Children’s Hospital in Saskatoon to seek a second opinion.

“They were shocked, they were very angry,” she said of the doctors’ response.

Olivia had come into the hospital in a wheelchair and when they asked her to get out and stand up, she fell. After being rushed into a room, a pediatrician informed them of what it was and the child underwent a smattering of tests including an ultrasound. Two hours later, they were out.

Olivia still has a rash and swollen ankle. (Julia Lovett-Squires/battlefordsNOW Staff)

“They were like, ‘Nope, they missed an infection in her body somewhere and now she’s got this (Henoch-Schonlein Purpura),’” she said.

According to the Canadian Family Physician, the Colleges of Family Physicians of Canada’s official journal, HSP causes small blood vessels to swell, causes rashes, leads to joint and stomach pain and if left untreated, can cause kidney problems. It is also more commonly found in children and boys and between eight to 20 children in 100,000 are diagnosed annually.

Once diagnosed and treated, the vasculitis most commonly seen in children takes roughly one or two months to clear up but there is a 50 per cent chance of recurrence within the first year.

“The Saskatchewan Health Authority sincerely apologizes to anyone who had an interaction with SHA staff that did not meet their expectations,” the authority said in a statement to battlefordsNOW and included a link to raise concerns.

“While the SHA cannot comment on specific cases due to patient confidentiality, members of the public can rest assured our physicians, staff and volunteers are committed to providing safe, high quality health care to the people of Saskatchewan.”

Prior to becoming ill, Olivia was quite active and after not being able to spend time in the downstairs playroom, she has been a little “grumpy,” her mom said.

“She’s just got all this built-up energy.”

The five-year-old is also missing her friends as she can’t go to school quite yet though she may be able to in the coming days. For now, however, she’s recovering and is able to walk short distances around the house. She walks with a limp and her right ankle and foot remain swollen and speckled.

“It just hurts when I walk,” Olivia said.

After her family’s experience, MacAloney-Cardinal took to social media last week to share her story.

“I was just very angry,” she said, adding she received a number of messages from other parents about their experiences.

battlefordsNOW also reached out to the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Saskatchewan who declined to comment on the Cardinals’ experience. They did, however, say that if any patient feels they have been neglected or refused the standard of care, they should file a complaint with the college as they are the regulatory body.

It’s something that MacAloney-Cardinal is considering. For now, though, they have follow-up doctor’s appointments for at least a month to make sure the HSP isn’t attacking Olivia’s kidneys.

“I just don’t want any more kids to be in pain,” she said.

“I want them to listen to moms.”

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julia.lovettsquires@pattisonmedia.com

On BlueSky: juleslovett.bsky.social

by Julia Lovett-Squires

Local mom speaks out after daughter in wheelchair following misdiagnosis

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