ST. JOHN’S, N.L. — A Newfoundland woman says she could have avoided a 16-hour brain surgery and losing hearing in her left ear if she had been able to get an MRI much sooner.

Alanna McDonald says she was put on a two-year waiting list for an MRI in January 2023 after unexplained bursts of kaleidoscopic vision developed into debilitating migraines and facial numbness.

But as her symptoms got worse, her family doctor urged her to see whether there was any way to have the scan done sooner.

The 42-year-old St. John’s woman says she managed to get an MRI on Jan. 22 because someone had cancelled their appointment.

Two days later, her family doctor said the results showed a three-centimetre-wide tumour — likely benign — pressing into her brain and that she would need a complicated surgery.

McDonald says she would have been eligible for less invasive procedures had the tumour been caught earlier, adding that her upcoming surgery will affect her hearing and could cause partial paralysis in her face.

She says her doctor knew she needed an MRI, but family doctors in Newfoundland and Labrador can’t book them. McDonald says she had to wait to see a specialist to get on the list for an MRI scan in the first place.

She says she feels her story is commonplace in a province whose health-care system is crumbling.

“Our system is broken. It’s taken so, so long,” McDonald said in an interview. “I still would not be diagnosed if I hadn’t pushed, if my doctor hadn’t said, ‘Call and push and see if you can get in earlier.'”

Health Minister Tom Osborne says the province will get an additional MRI machine in July when a new hospital opens in Corner Brook, N.L. That will increase capacity across Newfoundland and Labrador by about 20 per cent.

He says the provincial heath authority is aiming to boost the number of hours MRIs operate each day, and working on a centralized wait-list for scans so patients can take advantage of cancelled appointments anywhere in the province, if they can get to the opening.

Osborne says that since McDonald came forward with her story, he asked the health authority to evaluate whether the new measures will ease the wait-list for scans, or if another MRI machine is required in the province.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 6, 2024.

The Canadian Press