The last week or two for Miles Sundeen and Jolene Van Alstine has been overwhelming.
At the end of November, the Regina couple made their way to the Saskatchewan legislative building to ask for help from the government. Van Alstine has a rare parathyroid disease which has left her in severe pain most of the time.
“I’m so sick, I don’t leave the house except to go to medical appointments, blood work or go to the hospital,” she said then.
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She needs to see an endocrinologist and a surgeon who will take her glands out, but none of the few specialists in Saskatchewan would take on a new patient.
The headlines from that day, eventually made their way to Glenn Beck, the right-wing American political commentator. He appeared to take umbridge with the fact Van Alstine had been approved for Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) as a last ditch effort to end her pain.
“We didn’t reach out to Glenn Beck or anything, apparently he saw the news story at the legislature a couple weeks ago, so last Tuesday it just started blowing up,” said Sundeen on Tuesday.
Beck spoke about Van Alstine’s case on his national radio show and had Sundeen on to talk about it.
Since then, Sundeen said they’ve been getting all kinds of calls from specialists and clinics in the U.S. In particular, he said two clinics in Tampa Bay, Florida have reached out.
“They have offered to absolutely look after Jolene at no charge for any medical treatment whatsoever,” said Sundeen, calling them wonderful people.
In addition, Sundeen said Beck himself has offered to cover their travel and accommodation expenses, including Med-Evac-ing Van Alstine to Florida.
Sundeen got emotional as he explained the couple is excited there’s now a real prospect of getting Van Alstine help.
“It’s given Jolene, especially, but myself as well, it’s given us hope. And hope was gone, as of about three weeks ago,” said Sundeen.
He explained that three weeks ago they spoke with a specialist in Calgary who said Van Alstine’s case was beyond his expertise.
“That was our last hope, and at that point, Jolene had basically said that she’s done, she can’t go on. And this has absolutely given us hope that something will be able to be done to help her,” he said.
With that hope, Sundeen said Van Alstine had put the idea of MAID on the shelf for now. She wants to keep it in place in case these options don’t come through, but she doesn’t want to die.
Miles Sundeen (L) and Jolene Van Alstine asked for help three years ago as well, making their way to the legislature then too. (Lisa Schick/980 CJME)
The Government of Saskatchewan has come through with some possible options as well. A list of out-of-province clinics was supplied that might be able to help them – Sundeen said referrals have been sent off.
Since her case started getting more attention through Beck, Sundeen said the government had also put them in touch with an endocrinologist in Regina who suggested a more powerful kind of scan to get more information.
But Sundeen said he’s not going to turn away from the U.S. clinics and has already sent information off to them as well. He said he and his wife are at a point where they don’t quite trust the medical system here anymore.
Beck has used Van Alstine’s case as evidence in arguments against universal health care, but Sundeen said he’s not against the universal system at all. He said at one point it worked very well, but he believes it’s now fallen into disrepair and disarray over the last 20 years.
“Our governments have just left it to decay without realizing the importance of getting it back into a healthy situation,” he said.
Van Alstine was in the hospital again on Tuesday and Sundeen said he’s been running in circles trying to answer calls, organize paperwork and facilitate whatever he can to get Van Alstine help.
He said he’s sent off medical records to a number of specialists, wanting as many opinions as possible on what the best course of action is. He’s also working on getting the two of them passports in case treatment in the U.S. works out.