A Keremeos heavy equipment operator has filed a lawsuit against Interior Health and the doctors who allegedly failed to correctly diagnose an arterial blockage that led to the amputation of his leg.
The civil claim, filed this April 1 in Vancouver by Steven Barker, alleges that multiple visits to the Similkameen Health Centre over issues with his leg ended with the doctors and nurse failing to perform appropriate testing.
Starting with the first visit to see a doctor on April 2, 2024, Barker was seeking treatment for severe pain, reduced function, skin blistering, and redness in his foot, as well as black spots under his toes.
When he came in, he said he was hobbling due to the pain and leaning on his four-year-old daughter’s shoulder for balance and support.
The first diagnosis was allegedly for gout or frostbite, but no tests were ordered to either confirm or rule those diagnoses out.
Barker additionally claims that in the first trip to the emergency department, as well as subsequent visits, doctors didn’t use a handheld doppler or other device common to emergency departments to measure arterial pulsation in his foot, which allegedly would have detected signs of a blockage.
The doctor issued Barker a prescription for Tylenol and a gout medication, then discharged him.
Barker returned to the Similkameen Health Centre on May 10, 2024, with worsening pain and further difficulties in mobility. One of the black spots had also developed into an open ulcer on the underside of his big toe.
He returned again in July 2024, at which point he had developed paresthesia — the feeling of pins and needles, numbness, cramping, weakness, and pain throughout his right leg.
Between March and August 2024, Barker made multiple visits to a wound care clinic run out of the hospital, during which he alleges the nurse providing his care did not make any notes documenting his deteriorating condition or lack of healing.
Finally, on Aug. 12, 2024, when Barker again attended the emergency department, his foot had become pale and cold and allegedly, at that point, the doctor consulted a vascular expert over the phone.
After a dose of an anti-coagulant, he was transferred to Penticton Regional Hospital, where a CT scan found the blockage, prompting him to be transferred again to Kelowna General Hospital for emergency surgery the next day.
Despite the surgeon’s efforts to restore blood flow, much of Barker’s leg had suffered irreversible damage, and four days after the first surgery, his leg was amputated above the knee.
Barker alleges that the doctors and the nurse had failed to properly investigate the issue, and that if it weren’t for their alleged negligence, the blockage would have been caught sooner, and he wouldn’t have needed either an amputation or one that was so extensive.
The lawsuit seeks damages for the amputation, chronic phantom limb pain and residual limb pain, chronic back pain, Barker’s altered gait and prosthetic use, neuropathic pain, depression, anxiety, PTSD, loss of enjoyment of life, loss of earning capacity, and loss of housekeeping capacity.
No response to the claims has been filed and the allegations have not been tested in court.