By Jasmine Franklin
It’s been a challenge for the family of a brain-injured doctor from British Columbia receiving treatment in Ponoka but the journey is long from over.
Patient and former doctor Christopher Bigelow, 33, was to be cut off Feb. 15 from funding to stay at Ponoka’s Halvar Jonson Brain Injury Centre for continued treatment. The British Columbia Health Ministry had put responsibility on Dr. Bigelow’s father Kevin and his former neurologist Dr. John Diggle to come up with an appropriate plan treatment for his rehabilitation.
However, Dr. Diggle told the ministry that enough was enough.
“He basically said that he wasn’t Chris’s social worker,” Bigelow said. “So it’s now on the shoulders of Fraser Health to come up with a plan but everyone is confused.
In a meeting last week, Fraser Health sat down with doctors from the Halvar Jonson Centre to discuss Dr. Bigelow’s current treatment and future medical needs.
“As we discussed the different treatments and specialists we will need to bring in to one facility in B.C. you could just see the cost was over and above what it is to keep him here,” Bigelow said. “And you know I do feel bad, because now we are going to have to use money and space there that could be used for someone else and just keep Chris here where he is receiving exactly what he needs.”
Funding was to be cut off Feb. 15 but Fraser Health cannot establish a plan by the deadline, so the family will remain at the Halvar Jonson Centre until the proper resources have been established.
Where will Dr. Bigelow go?
There are private transition homes in B.C. called Connect that will work to provide Dr. Bigelow a bed space as well as bring in the specialists he needs. The home however will need to hire another nurse to care for Dr. Bigelow, and bring in professionals such as a physiotherapist, a speech therapist and other kinds of treatment.
“It is sad because our physiotherapist here gets him,” Bigelow said. “He responds to her and while someone may tell him to do something and he does not do it in 30 seconds, she will wait for minutes and the response will happen.”
The Bigelow family is pushing for a one-year funding agreement with B.C.’s insurance company, ICBC, to pay for the accommodations at the Connect home.
“I don’t want to be mad at anyone or frustrated,” Bigelow said. “But you know, how you deal with things is all in how you look at it. You can be unhappy, you can quit and that will get you nowhere. When you think of all the possibilities you still have every day is a brand new one.”
Dr. Bigelow was fresh out of medical school in B.C. when a car accident Nov. 3, 2007 left him with traumatic brain injury. Upon being sent to Ponoka for treatment, he has made progress and will need to maintain his therapy levels to progress.
Bigelow expects to hear from Fraser Health sometime this week.