REGINA – There’s another voice asking to keep oxygen therapy service in Moose Jaw and this time it’s from the group that has helped fund it for the last 17 years.
The Moose Jaw Firefighters Association was at the Saskatchewan legislature Thursday to pledge further support for keeping the hyperbaric chamber in the city. The firefighters kicked in $10,000 for operation of the chamber in 1997 and has continued to provide money through a provincial fund ever since.
The service is offered at Moose Jaw Union Hospital, but the province says there’s no room for it at the new regional hospital opening later in 2015.
“It’s a vital piece of equipment,” said Gord Hewitt, the association’s president. “We feel it’s being marginalized.”
The group was joined by a man who says he wouldn’t be alive without oxygen therapy being close by.
“The (chamber) saved my life.”
Four years ago, Brent Evans was found on his shop floor suffering from what appeared to be a heart attack. He was later diagnosed with carbon monoxide poisoning so severe doctors told him he nearly died.
The therapy stimulates oxygen flow to the brain of victims of carbon monoxide poisoning.
“I was picked up by an ambulance, diagnosed, treated and released within about 18 hours,” Evans said. “The (chamber) saved my life.”
‘Best sense for the province’
Health Minister Dustin Duncan said Thursday the government is still trying to weigh the cost of moving the hyperbaric chamber to another facility in Saskatchewan against fees the province would pay to send patients to other provinces for therapy.
Duncan also says nearly half the people using hyperbaric services are in relation to radiation therapy, suggesting a more appropriate location for the service may be near cancer centres in Regina or Saskatoon.
“We don’t see a lot of referrals outside the Moose Jaw area to hyperbaric services for radiation therapy,” Duncan said. “So it’s not just providing the service, but what’s the best way of providing the service that the most people will benefit?”
Moose Jaw’s chamber provides about 300 treatments per year and is the only one available on an inpatient basis between Edmonton and Toronto.
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