It isn't a question of if, but when Sudbury will be home to positron emission tomography (PET) technology.
That's a promise Frank Bruno made Oct. 27 when more than 400 people gathered at the Caruso Club for the second annual dinner and fundraising gala. Frank is the brother of Sam Bruno, who died in July 2010 from cancer. He was 54.
The goal was to raise $30,000 through this event.
The inaugural gala raised more than $46,000, and many donations from the community have trickled in over the past year. To date, more than $100,000 has been raised for the purchase of a $3.5-million PET scan.
A PET is a medical detection tool used in clinical oncology (tumours and metastases), brain diseases (various types of dementia) and heart disease. It is also an important research tool to map normal brain and heart functions, Cheryl Bruno, Sam's wife, said.
Sam lobbied hard, and was successful in getting treatments with the PET covered under the Ontario Health Insurance Plan. Now, Sam's family is raising funds to have a PET scan set up in Sudbury. It would be the only one located in the northeast.
Of the nine machines in Ontario, one is located in Thunder Bay; the rest are in southern Ontario.
“We started this two years ago after Sam passed away,” Cheryl said. “Sam questioned why there wasn't one in Sudbury. His vision was to have one here to serve northeastern Ontario, but he passed away, and his family is now carrying on the torch.”
The family's aim is two-pronged, Frank explained. The first battle is to raise enough money to purchase the PET scan; the second is to have more PET images covered under OHIP.
Currently, the province covers the cost of about 2,000 PET images a year. Quebec and Manitoba cover the cost of every PET image.
“It's ridiculous to have such an innovative tool that has proven to save lives and eliminated the need for some invasive surgeries overlooked and to have only 2,000 images covered under OHIP,” Frank said. “All we're asking is for the PET scan to be similar to a CAT scan. Why are there so many restrictions placed on a tool that is more innovative and produces better photography. The image produced by at PET scan is out of this world compared to CAT scans.”
The ongoing efforts have stirred a lot of interest in Sudbury and across the entire province, Frank added. Sudbury Regional Hospital has sent a recommendation to its board to have a PET set up in the city, and many more people are starting to understand the benefits that would come with having it here.
Cancer patients do receive grants to help offset the cost of travelling for a PET scan, but that brings little comfort to someone who has to travel hundreds of kilometres and spend a night in a city with which they are not familiar, Cheryl said.
“Everyone knows someone who has been touched by cancer,” she said. “This machine will help speed up the process to diagnose and ultimately treat the deadly disease. The PET is not effective with every type of cancer, but it has saved a lot of people's lives.”
Frank echoed those comments.
“I always hear from politicians that a PET isn't needed here, and you can just drive five hours to Toronto,” he said. “Tell that to a patient who is extremely ill, or a patient who needs a spouse, who might be elderly, to drive them to Toronto.”
Nickel Belt NDP MPP France Gélinas backs the Brunos' mission with pride. She tells with a smile the story of an Italian Sudbury man who forced the hand of the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, and won against all odds. Gélinas said Sam's mission to have PET images covered under OHIP was the proverbial “David vs. Goliath”
“Sam was our David,” she said. “It took tons of hard work by a very sick man to get to this point.”
Once the PET was an insured service in Ontario, only then was it realized the minister at the time had no intention of putting a machine in northern Ontario, Gélinas said. To this day, the machinery is not equitably available to the people of Ontario.
“The province is starting to feel the pressure,” she said. “The ministry is trying to pass the buck onto the local LHIN and the hospital, but no one is buying it any more.”
Sudbury Regional Hospital has done its homework, and got together with other hospitals in the north to look at three different scenarios, and all parties agreed on the equipment being located in Sudbury, Gélinas said.
“At the end of the day, when the government decided to make this technology available, it was the government's responsibility to bring equity. They failed to do it, and they are at fault for it.”
The community is quickly becoming more informed on the benefits of having a PET scan located in Sudbury, Cheryl added.
“We're doing the best we can, and we want to get out the awareness for the need and the PET scan. Two years ago, no one knew what a PET scan was; people thought it was something for their pets.”
Sam's family collected 27,000 signatures on a petition to have the equipment set up in Sudbury. At that time, the family had to do a lot of explaining about what the PET scan was, but Cheryl said that has changed.
Frank, on the other hand, said he is quickly realizing that his brother did a lot of work behind the scenes.
“Sam has done an incredible amount of work,” Frank said. “As passionate as we are about this, he was much more passionate and set the bar high, and we haven't come close to reaching that level, even as a committee.”
It's only a matter of time before Sudbury is home to a PET, Frank added. When that happens, those who are fighting the campaign or who are not supporting the committee in its mission will look back three or four years from now, and question why they were opposed to the idea of something that will only benefit patients of the northeast.
“We are a far cry from our goal, but there are several large corporations that have expressed interest in supporting this mission,” Frank said. “For us, it's about raising awareness and money one dollar at a time.”
When the day comes that Sam's family has the money in hand, they will go to (Sudbury MPP) Rick Bartolucci and tell him to get the operational costs of the PET scan covered, “just like he promised us,” Frank said.
Posted by Arron Pickard
