The Soosay family is looking for answers after finding their seven-month-old with a broken leg while in the care of hospital staff.
Baby Tobias Soosay entered the world prematurely on Sept. 1, 2021, at the Jim Pattison Children’s Hospital in Saskatoon.
Tobias stays in the care of the hospital staff, but now his family is living in fear wondering if he is getting proper care.
Mother Teelay Soosay said she visited Tobias on April 4 and noted that he was doing very well.
When she went back to the hospital on April. 7, her son was in a full leg cast.
“When I walked in, his leg was covered up. I walked in and uncovered him to pick him up just to find out he had a cast on, like a whole leg cast and … it scared me,” said Soosay.
The worried mother said she was never informed of the incident at the time it happened.
“He was in pain because of his leg, and then they took him down for X-rays just to find out that his femur bone was broken,” said Soosay.
In shock, she tried to find out how and why his leg had broke, but the response was that no one knew.
Soosay said, X-rays showed Tobias has a small fracture in his right femur.
The Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations (FSIN) is calling on the children’s hospital to do a full internal investigation of their staff.
The federation also wants someone from FSIN to join the investigation, said Vice Chief David Pratt.
“A child doesn’t just break his leg by accident or by sitting in a crib so we have to determine what exactly took place.”
The case has landed on the desk of the provincial Minister of Health, Paul Merriman, who said he saw the release from FSIN about the issue, and will be waiting for the critical incident report, if there is one.
“My team will follow up and once we get that critical incident, if it does get to that level, we will make sure that that has gone out to the public,” said Merriman.
Doug Dahl on behalf of the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) shared the following statement with Global News:
“We take all concerns from patients and their family members very seriously. Anyone who has concerns over their care experience is encouraged to contact our Quality of Care Coordinators. Through this patient-centered service, we can work with the patient and their family members through a respectful and confidential process to find out how we can help.
“We understand that some First Nations and Métis people do not feel comfortable accessing care or bringing up complaints they may have about their healthcare experience. We are committed to improving the health-care experience of our First Nations and Métis patients, clients and residents, and we have publicly committed to creating concrete and sustainable actions for change through our commitment to Truth and Reconciliation.”
“We are very sorry to hear about the concerns being raised by this family, and are working to ensure conversations with family and their supports, formal safety event processes and appropriate medical investigations are completed. While we cannot comment further on this particular situation due to privacy, we do take very seriously concerns like these and the SHA is committed to providing physical, psychological, social, cultural, and environmental safety for everyone every day. The SHA supports the enactment of Jordan’s principle to ensure all First Nations children can access the products, services and supports they need when they need them, and is committed to working with local coordinators to ensure safe, quality care and strong communication is in place between health services and the local community.”
Dahl said concerns are taken seriously and there is a process that includes a care team and meeting with the family to review the case and a formal review could follow.
FSIN said the lack of communication for the family, paired with the lack of care for Tobias, is disheartening.