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B.C. author outlines challenges with the healthcare system, warns others

Have you ever had to challenge a medical professional to get the help you needed? If so, you’re not alone.

A local author, who splits his time between Vancouver and Vancouver Island, is speaking out as a warning to others to go to bat for themselves.

Danny Ramadan came to Canada from Syria in 2014 and a year or two later he developed back pain so severe, it often left him bed-ridden.

He says he went to his doctor in search of an answer.

“She recommended massage therapy. I ended up spending a lot of money on massage therapy. I was in massage therapy for over two years and it just didn’t help.

“I then tried acupuncture. I tried chiropractic. I tried something called Rolfing, which I’ve never heard before but somebody recommended it. I bought my own massage gun. I tried medication. I literally spent, I would say, over $15,000 on things that people suggested. And I kept coming back being like, ‘I think the issue is not muscular. We’ve tried literally everything muscular-wise, I think it’s in my spine.’ And the response has always been, ‘Well, you are young.’ I am 37 right now, I started complaining about it when I was 32. ‘Statistically speaking, it couldn’t be something to do with your spine, so that’s a no.'”

Ramadan pushed for an MRI but never got one. So, last December he went to Mexico for help. “I ended up going to a Mexican hospital and within 10 minutes I met a spinal surgeon and it cost me $50. And the spinal surgeon said, ‘Yup, you need an MRI,’ and it cost me $150 and then I got an MRI and lo and behold, I have two degenerative discs in my lower back.”

He describes his experience as heartbreaking.

Now, Ramadan has a message for the Ministry of Health and healthcare professionals.

“I didn’t have to go through that pain. I didn’t have to handle all of this on my own. And I didn’t have to literally be gaslit too.

“I kept saying, ‘Something is hurting, it’s my own body. It’s a critical issue. It has been going on for years,’ and I kept hearing the same exact information. So, maybe try listening to me. ‘I understand that you’re the expert on medicine, but I’m the expert on my own body and I’m telling you, this is what hurts.'”

Ramadan appreciates Canada’s healthcare system is better compared to some other countries, but he feels let down by what he’s gone through. “I didn’t have to go through this and I didn’t have to spend all of that money on things that never actually helped.”

He describes all the medical experts who helped him before he went to Mexico as “fantastic people,” and he thinks they were doing what they could while facing the restrictions of the system.

“They were navigating a system that told them somebody my age, somebody my gender, somebody who goes to the gym all the time, somebody who looks and acts quite healthy cannot have lower back pain. They just followed the rules that were written for them by the medical system. I don’t want to blame my doctors, they did their best — at the same time, I feel there’s a fault in the system. There’s a bottleneck somewhere that is denying people like me to get the service that they deserve.”

His doctor told him the waiting list for the epidural injections he needs would take a couple of years, instead, he’s paying $850 per shot, through a private provider. He acknowledges not everyone can do that.

“What I hope would change is people with critical pain will be listened to. People, like myself, wouldn’t be paying for their own pains, saying that they’re trying to be on disability or trying to get painkillers or ‘It’s in your head. It’s your depression. It’s whatever it is that is happening with you.’ We have the tools to help people and I understand the limitations but maybe those limitations need to be re-examined.”

Ramadan had his first injection on Friday and he says it didn’t hurt as much as he thought it would. “It’s the first time in six years that I don’t feel, on a scale from 1-10, I don’t feel like I’m at a four with my pain. It’s emotional. It’s meaningful. It’s feeling that you’re in control of your own body. It’s important to me, it really is.”

He says the goal is to continue doing these injections and to stave off surgery for as long as possible.

He also hopes the healthcare system eventually calls his name and he’s able to get these injections covered, if not fully, then at least partially. “I really understand the value of my citizenship. I really understand what it means to be part of this community and I want to support it in every way that I can and I need it to support me back.”

Ramadan encourages anyone who feels something is wrong to speak up and continue to push for answers.

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