A father who has been fighting to keep his son at a specialty brain injury centre in Ponoka is now back in Vancouver and says the plans for his son’s continued rehabilitation are like “scrambled eggs.”
Dr. Christopher Bigelow, 33, and father Kevin returned to B.C. last week.
Christopher had been at the Halvar Jonson Centre for Brain Injury for about 14 months, after having been in a vehicle collision at age 30 that left him with a traumatic brain injury.
Earlier this year, facing cancellation of funding for his son’s stay at Halvar Jonson when he was making improvements, Kevin tried to get Christopher’s stay in Ponoka extended or set up something similar to its therapy regimen in Vancouver.
Last month, the B.C. government gave Kevin a cutoff date of April 26, and the father and son went home expecting a regional health authority to have put together a rehab plan, Kevin said.
But the staff at the centre where Christopher is now staying haven’t been trained to handle his needs, says Kevin.
“I’m kind of confident that that can be shown, but there’s no plan for therapy at all,” he said.
“He’s been six days away from Halvar Jonson and he has yet to receive one exercise program, one therapy. Halvar Jonson was quite clear that after four days (without therapy) he shows great signs of starting to lose what he’s gained in his strength and stuff.”
Another B.C. patient receiving therapy at Halvar Jonson, and whose family was up in arms over the prospect of his removal from the centre, is Norman Gagatek.
The 41-year-old Invermere man, who suffered a brain-stem stroke, is still at the Halvar Jonson and making progress. He talks to his partner, Kim Harris, every night on the telephone.
“Earlier (last) week I phoned him and I was telling him stuff going on in the family. . . . He did a full-on belly laugh, which I haven’t heard in almost two years. He made the nurse cry,” said Harris.
“He’s coming out of his shell, which is a huge part of recovery from brain injury, the social aspect, interacting with people.”
She’s still worried about monthly assessments conducted by Halvar Jonson that the B.C. government uses to see if further therapy is justified. If Gagatek has pneumonia one month, he could lack energy and not show progress for the assessment, Harris said. Her concern is that as a result he could land in an extended care bed with no therapy.
There is no facility in B.C. similar in scope to the Halvar Jonson.
mgauk@www.reddeeradvocate.com