Did a Princeton man fall through the cracks of the health care system?
You might remember Fred Cosman, the father of five who had a tumour on his nose that was left untreated and spread across much of his face.
“I feel like our family was failed,” Fred’s 17-year-old daughter, Shyanne Cosman said.
The family believed the health care system let him slip through the cracks.
“Waiting six months to see a specialist is way too long and especially if they’re misdiagnosed like Fred was three times,” his caregiver, Tina Krause said.
Panicked, Fred contacted Global News in April of 2015.
WATCH BELOW: Princeton man fears for his life, says health care system has ‘failed him’
Soon after the story aired he got a call from the B.C. Cancer Agency and was booked for treatment.
READ MORE: Princeton father battling cancer finally scheduled for treatment
Word of his plight spread fast, even going to the B.C. Legislature.
READ MORE: B.C. NDP grills province about Princeton man’s cancer care
But it wasn’t enough, Fred Cosman died in January.
“It was a shock to the whole family,” Krause said.
Fred became very weak and Krause said that’s what led him to fall while in the bathroom.
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He was rushed to hospital where he later development pneumonia and passed away soon after on Jan. 19, 2016.
“I expected him to come out of the hospital… it just all happened so quickly,” Shyanne said.
Krause said Fred’s doctor told the family it was the cancer that killed him.
“They said he died from complications to his cancer,” she said.
“I really do believe that Fred would have survived had we had a proper diagnosis at the beginning.”
After the family expressed concern about his care, the Interior Health Authority (IHA) promised a review.
READ MORE: Glimmer of hope for Princeton father battling cancer
But we won’t know much about what that review found, IHA says privacy laws restrict it from sharing many details.
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The family won’t get a hard copy of the review as they had hoped; instead they got a phone call explaining the results.
What IHA did say about the review is that nothing would have saved Fred’s life.
“There were opportunities to share information between agencies and across boundaries but the outcome unfortunately in Mr. Cosman’s case would not have been different,” IHA’s executive medical director for quality patient safety, Dr. Ron Collins said.
While IHA and the Ministry of Health maintain that the health care system didn’t fail Cosman, the review might lead to some change.
“We do our best to ensure conditions that led to patient safety incidents don’t reoccur,” Collins said.
IHA won’t release what the recommendations from the review are.
Fred Cosman’s family members say they’ll continue fighting for shorter wait times for cancer patients and quicker diagnosis.
“Hopefully this will help some other family and they won’t have to go through the suffering that our family has gone through,” Krause said.
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