An Ontario teen battling leukemia is being forced to undergo unnecessary chemotherapy treatments due to a lack of available hospital beds for a potentially life-saving transplant.
Eighteen-year-old Laura Hillier, of Burlington, Ont. is battling acute myeloid leukemia. She has obtained a donor for a stem cell transplant, but the Hamilton, Ont. hospital where she is being treated does not have an available bed to perform the surgery.
Her family says the teen must instead undergo unnecessary chemotherapy in order to keep her body in remission, which is a requirement for patients who are otherwise ready to receive a stem cell transplant.
Laura’s mother Frances told CTV’s News Channel on Monday that she was “devastated” and “shocked” to learn her daughter would need to undergo further chemotherapy treatments, which put patients at greater risk for infections and other health complications.
Laura is being treated at Hamilton’s Juravinski Hospital. In a statement sent to CTV News on Monday afternoon, the hospital's president, Dr. Ralph Meyer, said staff do "their absolute best to provide all cancer patients with the care they need as quickly as possible."
"However, (stem cell transplants are) complex and resource intensive, which creates pressure on our provincial health care system and increases wait times for patients," added Meyer.
"Cancer Care Ontario, the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care, and cancer hospital are working together to make this specialized service more accessible to patients in a timely way."
Laura has been down this road before. In 2010, she underwent chemotherapy to treat her myeloid leukemia.
“She really had nothing but high fevers and infections during the whole process,” Frances said, adding her daughter developed a serious brain infection that caused permanent vision damage.
Now, Laura’s family was told more than 30 people are currently on the waiting list for a transplant.
The problem is, Frances said, the hospital has only a handful of specialized transplant beds, and they are in use for a relatively lengthy period of time. Patients must be in isolation for an average of 100 days following a stem cell transplant.
Frances said when she inquired about re-locating her daughter to another hospital, she was told it was a similar problem not only across Ontario, but the entire country.
It’s not known at this point when a bed will be available for Laura, but her mother says they were told they must be prepared for possible multiple rounds of chemotherapy while they wait.
“All of the other patients would of course, have compelling stories and situations -- it’s heart-breaking,” Frances said. “But we don’t know where (Laura) would fall on that list.”
Laura says despite the situation, she is feeling better at the moment.
“I’m technically healing after the first round of chemo before I go to the next rounds and next steps,” she said on Monday. “But obviously with the situation, I’m not feeling happy about that.”
