Manitoba

Some excerpts

He was diagnosed with acute myelogenous leukemia. After receiving chemotherapy, he entered remission in the summer.

But by October, Stephen's health started to fail.

He was going cross-eyed, which a doctor chalked up to stress from fighting cancer.

Stephen complained of severe back pain, which led to medication being prescribed, but nothing more.

Stacey Rockwell said a medical professional accused her brother, who didn't use drugs, of only visiting the hospital to get drugs.

"He was treated like, 'You're a drug-seeker,'" like "any other Indigenous [person] off the street," she said, referring to a common stereotype Indigenous people endure.

His family argues medical staff dismissed a patient with serious pain who deserved regular monitoring because complications from a cancer diagnosis are possible.

With nowhere else to turn, Massan took her son to a chiropractor, who noticed a mass in his spine and hip. The chiropractor wrote a letter that day requesting Thompson's hospital conduct a CT scan.

At first, a physician at the hospital scoffed at being asked to follow a chiropractor's recommendation, Massan said.

"And I said, 'Excuse me, it says doctor in front of [his name], too,'" she said.

Stephen was quickly given a CT scan that identified tumours in his spine, hip, stomach and the left side of his back, Massan said, and then was rushed to the CancerCare facility in Winnipeg.

He underwent an aggressive chemotherapy regime and a stem cell transplant — the latter at Stacey's urging — but they came up short.

He died on March 13, 2024, four months after the return of his leukemia was confirmed. He was 33.

Good on the chiropractor and his family for pushing for treatment, and it really shouldn't have come to that. I hope that along with this admission, the health officials determine what went wrong and implement necessary changes to catch remissions like this sooner