After being bitten by her cat recently, Tatyonia Maude called Alberta Health Services and was told she needed a tetanus shot.
When she went to the hospital, Maude says the doctor ignored the bite and instead asked if she had received her COVID-19 vaccination.
“She kind of glanced at my hand and then she looked up at me and asked me: ‘Do you have your COVID shot?'” Maude said.
“I said: ‘No.’ She didn’t talk to me anymore about my hand but she pointed to my wife and said we were fat.”
Maude says the doctor later changed the term to overweight, saying it could increase the chances of complications from COVID-19.
“She then proceeded to tell me she wasn’t going to give me my tetanus until I had my COVID,” Maude said.
“Apparently that’s more important than taking care of what I actually went into the hospital for.”
Maude says she was instead prescribed antibiotics to treat her swollen hand.
She called 811 again the next day and was booked a tetanus shot at the Lethbridge Community Health Unit.
She received the shot the following day.
“I made the call and the next day I was in pretty quick and easy,” Maude said.
“They didn’t tell me I needed my COVID shot or anything.”
Alberta Health Services wouldn’t comment on specific patients, but officials pointed Global News to information on their website that suggests anyone who receives a vaccine, like tetanus, should wait 14 days before getting a COVID-19 shot.
That wait time between vaccines increases to 28 days if you get your COVID shot first, but Maude says that doesn’t apply to her situation and she’s left questioning why the emergency room doctor denied her a tetanus shot.
“When you go to the hospital for one thing and you don’t get help for that one thing, it needed to be done,” Maude said.
Global News is not naming the doctor.
We reached out to her for comment, but did not hear back.