By Lyonel Doherty

Oliver Chronicle

We’re not doctors or disease specialists, but Interior Health must be questioned on its handling of the meningitis issue in Oliver.

Particularly the case involving 19-year-old Aidan Pratt, who had the disease and died on a bathroom floor on October 12.

The actual cause of death has not been confirmed, but he did suffer from a pre-existing gastrointestinal bleed.

According to the family, they took Aidan to the Oliver hospital, where he reportedly waited three hours before being told to see his family doctor. He eventually did get in to see his doctor, resulting in stomach medication being prescribed. Fifteen days later he died.

The family says Aidan showed signs and symptoms of meningitis but no tests were ordered or conducted. The only official tests came after he died, which was too late.

Interior Health and the doctors may have a different story, but they’re not talking due to privacy protocols.

Aidan died last October, and the first the public heard about the disease was on November 9 when Interior Health revealed that two Oliver students had contracted it. The health authority previously stated it was made aware of these two cases between September 27 and November 9.

If Aidan had been tested, perhaps his death could have been prevented and the public would have been informed sooner.

Doctors are highly trained professionals, but they are only human and make mistakes like everyone else. Perhaps the signs and symptoms they saw in Aidan did not, in their opinion, warrant a test for meningococcal disease. But there’s a lot to be said for erring on the side of caution.

As expected in this case, Interior Health and its medical professionals are closing rank. That’s protocol. But the Pratt family deserves more than protocol, it deserves answers. It deserves accountability.

The loss of a child in these circumstances is hard to describe unless you’ve lived it. It’s more than heartbreaking. More than devastating. More than . . . anything.

This tragedy has rattled many parents, not just Aidan’s. No doubt it has prompted moms and dads (like me) to warn their own children about the disease and the risk factors involved.

“Don’t worry, Dad, I won’t get it.”

Don’t let those be the famous last words that your child utters.

Please talk to your children about how meningitis can be spread, such as sharing water bottles, coughing, sneezing and kissing.

Did you know that the bacteria that causes meningitis lives in the back of the nose and throat and is carried by 10 to 25 per cent of the population? Scary.

Ensure that your child is immunized against the disease, and keep harping on the importance of proper handwashing.

We implore everyone to learn from Aidan’s death and this terrible tragedy that has befallen his family.