A cancer patient who was told last week that she may not receive her much-needed chemotherapy on time due to a drug shortage says she “doesn’t understand” why there is no “back-up plan” when it comes to drug shortages.
Carmen Sebastian, of Vaughan, Ont., was one dozens of patients at Mackenzie Richmond Hill Hospital who was told late last week that her chemotherapy treatment would be delayed due to an acute shortage of the cancer drug Fluorouracil.
Health Canada had quarantined shipments of the drugs due to an ongoing investigation into leaking and cracked vials found between June 2015 and October 2016. Now, 3,600 vials are being released with a warning to help professionals administering the drug to check them before use.
Sebastian said she was told over voicemail on Friday that her next appointment was being cancelled due to a province-wide shortage of her chemotherapy drug.
“I was a little bit worried because I didn’t know how long this was going to go on,” Sebastian told CTV Toronto on Tuesday. “And cancer – it moves quickly and you have to be careful.”
Sebastian said when she phoned back on Monday morning, she was told the hospital had “no idea” when the drug would be restocked, “or if they were indeed going to get it.”
As recently as Tuesday morning, the clinic was not able to say when Sebastian could reschedule her chemotherapy, she said. One treatment session takes approximately four hours.
The experience has been difficult for Sebastian, who was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer about 18 months ago. The 68-year-old has been told that she only has a few years left to live.
“Knowing that you’re not going to have your therapy, you remember what you were like when you first went in, and how sick you were, and you don’t want to go back to that,” she told CTV News Channel.
She suggested perhaps she and other patients would’ve have been “sitting in limbo,” waiting for a new supply, if the shortage had not been made public through media reports.
“So I just don’t understand why they don’t have a back-up plan,” Sebastian said. “Why the ordering of this supply of this drug isn’t done a little better.”
