Mathieu Hamel hopes to be normal again after his surgery. Photo by Dan Walton
Mathieu Hamel’s medical condition doesn’t bode well with the public health care system, which has presented him with stubborn obstacles and a costly wait.
The 36-year-old Oliver resident developed severe mobility issues which he believes to be a result from a procedural poison ivy treatment two years ago, leaving him unable to walk without crutches.
“The doctor told me there was side effects,” Hamel said about prednisone, the medication he was prescribed for poison ivy. “But nowhere on the can did it say double hip surgery because if that was written on the thing I would not have taken it.”
Thanks to the community of Oliver, as well as friends and family and his workplace, Transwest Helicopters – Hamel isn’t being left high and dry. After a major fundraiser and a crowdfunding campaign, Hamel is now able to cover the cost of private treatment – which comes in at over $30,000.
His circumstances haven’t been treated with much urgency, so ironically, it may have been more costly for Hamel to pursue the treatment that’s available through public health care.
When Hamel first went to see a doctor in 2014, it was to deal with a poison ivy rash that he suspects came from landscaping around the new home he just purchased in Oliver. He was prescribed a steroid called prednisone.
“At the time I thought that was a good idea so I took the pills, I got rid of the poison ivy and it seemed all good,” he said. “But then over the winter I got poison ivy two more times without even going into the bush. Just from my dog or whatever. So they gave me prednisone two more times – in total I took prednisone three times; 10 pills at a time, so 30 pills in total.”
A few months later, Hamel began to have trouble walking. He had no reason to correlate the pain in his hip to the medication for poison ivy.
“I thought I had a pinched nerve so I saw a chiropractor who made me feel good for a few days but the pain returned.”
When things didn’t get better after 12 treatments with a chiropractor, he was given an X-ray scan.
“That’s when I found out I had muscular necrosis.”
He said doctors can’t prove his muscular necrosis was a result of his prednisone use, but the only other major cause of the ailment is deep sea diving, which Hamel has never done.
“Prednisone and deep sea diving are the two major causes of muscular necrosis.”
In both of his hips, the necrosis reduced blood flow by damaging a vein on top of the hip joint.
While attending a Christmas party at the end of 2015, Hamel walked into a party, and his pain became irreversibly worse.
“Then I couldn’t walk out, the whole rest of the night I couldn’t walk.”
And since then he’s been using crutches to get around.
“After six months, there were two specialists I was supposed to see.”
Hamel called both specialists several times but never heard back. He saw a family doctor in hopes of getting help being referred to a specialist, but ended up waiting three weeks and never connected with a surgeon. Even if he got that referral, it would have still been a six month waiting list just to get an appointment, and Hamel would have had to go through the process twice to get both hips treated.
“So it would have been six months before I could even ask anything,” he said. “I would have to be away for two to three years. One year to do my right side and another six months before I can get the next one looked at. And I would have no income for much of that time.”
Instead of hoping for the best from the bottom of the totem pole, Hamel got on the phone the next day and began shopping around the globe for private options.
“I didn’t want to wait. Walking with crutches in pain for up to three years is not an option for me,” he said. “I decided if I can get the money I’ll go pay for it because the way I’ve been living the last year, it’s not fun.”
The total cost of a trip to India, where clinics are renowned for the treatment he was looking for, would have been in the ball field of $25,000 USD.
But before he committed to surgery on the other side of the world, he found out about a hip transplant specialist in Montreal.
The cost was a little more in Montreal – around $31,000, but the timeline was much shorter. Just last week, after lining up the funds, Hamel called the clinic in Montreal to confirm his appointment for surgery on December 3.
“I can stay at hospital for five days and the surgeon will operate on both (hips). Maybe I’ll stay for three weeks to recover, make sure everything’s good. Then I can come back here and hope next year goes well.”
Right now, Hamel said he isn’t even able to put his socks on some days, and he still goes to work full time as a painter at Transwest Helicopters.
“Those guys have been really nice to let me keep working with them,” he said, adding that his co-workers often help him with mobility.
Transwest hosted a dinner and silent auction fundraiser for Hamel on Oct. 15 and raised $7,500.
“Everyone at work was really generous and chipped in what they could.”
The remainder of the money needed was generously donated by members of the Oliver Elks Lodge, as well as $10,845 from his crowdfunding page, gofundme.com/2jgk3nvc.
Hamel expects to complete his recovery by next summer, and hope to be able to take up one of his favourite hobbies again – mountain biking.
“The doctor said I can do anything I did before, just don’t crash.”
But he’s most happy that treatment won’t require him to sell the home he bought on River Road in 2014, where he first developed the poison ivy.
“It was my dream home but I didn’t know it would come with a hidden surprise.”
By Dan Walton
