Aspen Lynn Anber's family needs help accessing specialized healthcare.
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March 07, 2022 - 6:31 AM
A Kelowna mother needs help to find out exactly what’s wrong with her six-month-old baby.
Aspen Anber has been vomiting after every feeding since she was born, her mother Taylor Kizyma said.
Kizyma doesn’t believe the staff at Kelowna General Hospital have the expertise to provide the healthcare Aspen needs.
“She’s an infant, really small for her age, nobody will touch her,” Kizyma said. “They’re not digging deep enough to find out what’s going on. They’re just putting bandaids over everything.”
Aspen weighs just 13 pounds and was diagnosed with failure to thrive in December. She was introduced to solid foods early to try and help her gain weight, and it helped, but then she began to develop anal lesions, and there is still blood in every diaper change.
Also helping the baby gain weight are special bottles of formula, but they cost around $100 each and only last for three to four days.
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Beyond Aspen’s diagnosis of failure to thrive, the family’s research has led them to suspect she may also be living with a very rare case of paediatric Crohn’s Disease.
Kizyma said the doctors and paediatricians she’s dealt with at Kelowna General Hospital all have staunchly different opinions as to what’s wrong with her daughter, and they want to continue ruling out more possibilities before seeking a Crohn’s diagnosis.
“Everyone’s like, ‘It’s outside my scope of practice, go see this person.’ The paediatrician said 'let’s do more trial and error for the next two months.'”
In order to get tested sooner, Aspen first has to be referred to a specialist in Vancouver, get private testing for a colonoscopy, and then have a specialized ultrasound and a CT scan, Kizyma said.
Each test costs a minimum of $1,500 and multiple will be required, which she said is financially unfeasible. Without accounting for living expenses she estimates the total cost of testing will be about $5,200.
Interior Health said it couldn't speak about “individual patient situations”.
As of the afternoon of March 4, 85 people had donated a total of $5,613 through the online fundraiser, which you can find here.
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