A Quebec father says he had to take his son to the United States for treatment after alleging that Montreal doctors had written off his son’s chances of survival.
In October 2024, two-and-a-half-year-old Arthur Tétrault was found in the swimming pool of a house his family was renting in Île-Bizard, Quebec, a suburb of Montreal.
Nicolas Tétrault said his son was rushed to the emergency room at Lakeshore General Hospital and was eventually transferred to the Montreal Children’s Hospital.
It was there that his father said he began to become dissatisfied with the way his son was being treated.
“They unilaterally decided that Arthur had no chance of survival, that he could not breathe on his own (and) that he would basically be in a vegetative state for the next few years of his life,” said Tétrault.
Not wanting to abandon his son, Tétrault said he began doing his own research into possible treatments for drowning victims.
He discovered the work of Dr. Paul Harch, a specialist in hyperbaric oxygen treatment in Louisiana, who claims to have obtained several positive results in young victims of brain injuries, including that 85% of severely drowned children would see some improvement with hyperbaric oxygen. treatment.
Tetrault said he asked doctors in Montreal to give Arthur hyperbaric oxygen treatment and other alternative treatments based on increasing oxygen levels.
According to him, they said no. Hyperbaric treatment is not approved by Health Canada to treat drowning victims.
“They said, ‘It’s witchcraft, all the doctors in the United States are imbeciles,'” Tétrault says.
Dr. Pierre Marois, a child rehabilitation specialist affiliated with Sainte-Justine Children’s Hospital, said he and Harch have spoken at conferences about hyperbaric oxygen therapy.
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Marois visited Arthur at the Montreal Children’s Hospital.
“I was surprised that they would consider removing any life support at that time,” Marois said.
Harch said doctors dismissing children with injuries like Arthur’s is “pretty typical,” and said when a parent suggests therapy like hyperbaric oxygen treatment to a doctor, the situation can become “very conflicting”.
“This therapy is very curious and unusual and is not taught in medical schools,” he said.
“If a doctor can’t explain a therapy and understand it, they don’t refer people to it.”
Tetrault said he pulled every string possible and took Arthur to Ochsner Medical Center in New Orleans, where he was already beginning to receive care that he said is “a million times better.”
For him, this affair highlights the differences between the Canadian and American systems.
“Parents are treated like customers, you know, whereas in Montreal hospitals, we are seen as a source of expenses,” he says.
Medical malpractice lawyer Patrick Martin-Ménard said Quebec’s public system lacks a culture of customer service.
He said that while he doesn’t want to generalize, he has seen situations where doctors, nurses or other decision-makers can be disrespectful, condescending or even abusive to patients.
“This type of attitude is very present here in the Quebec health system,” he said.
Martin-Ménard, however, wonders whether a system with significant financial barriers is really better.
“You can find a number of flaws in our system. We can also find a number of flaws in the American system, the first of which is the amount of money required for a person to have access to this type of service,” he said.
“Is the quality of care in the United States so much better than in Quebec? I think it’s definitely up for discussion, but it’s not a clear black and white thing.
The Montreal Children’s Hospital (LME) indicated in a press release that its decisions are based on best practices.
“In general, there is little hope of survival for a child whose heart stops outside the hospital and requires prolonged cardiopulmonary resuscitation, arriving at the hospital without a heartbeat. This can happen in cases such as drowning. The usual outcome is either death or survival in a permanent vegetative state,” Christine Bouthillier, MCH communications director, said in an email.
She said organ donation is never discussed with families unless death is imminent, and is never factored into decisions or discussions about neuroprognosis.
“Hyperbaric oxygen is not indicated for the chronic treatment of brain injury from oxygen deprivation after resuscitated cardiac arrest and is not offered in Quebec,” she said.
Cardiologist Dr. Christopher Labos, who works in the Office of Science and Society at McGill University, recognizes that any parent will spare no expense to save a child. He said hyperbaric oxygen treatment has several uses authorized by Health Canada, but treating drowning victims is not one of them.
“If your primary care doctor tells you it won’t work because the evidence doesn’t support its use, there’s probably a reason they’re telling you that,” he said.
“I don’t know if there’s any evidence to suggest you could use it in a drowning case. This seems a bit outside of what the evidence suggests.
Tetrault said Arthur is expected to begin hyperbaric oxygen treatment this week. He said the medical bills were going to cost him “more than six figures,” but he was finally able to sleep.
“I really feel like there’s hope,” Tetrault said.
His social media posts documenting Arthur’s journey went viral. It is unclear whether her son will ever be able to walk or talk again.
Tétrault said he plans to dedicate part of his life to helping drowning victims access treatment.