Former Montreal city councillor Nicolas Tétrault says his son’s life was saved by medical treatments in the United States after his family had been told by a Montreal hospital to prepare for the boy’s funeral.
In October 2024, Tétrault’s two-year-old boy, Arthur, was found unresponsive in a swimming pool at a rental home in a Montreal suburb where the family was staying.
Tétrault pulled the boy out and was able to empty the water from his lungs, he told The Epoch Times in an interview. He immediately started CPR while waiting for an ambulance.
Arthur was rushed to Lakeshore General Hospital in Pointe-Claire, Que., where they were able to revive him, Tétrault said. The toddler was then transferred to the Montreal Children’s Hospital (MCH) a few hours later.
The boy was stabilized, and testing found he had some brain damage. Arthur was diagnosed with dystonia, a neurological movement disorder where muscle contractions occur involuntarily, sometimes known as “brainstorming.” Arthur was given medication to control the dystonia, which temporarily leaves him in a state of semi-paralysis, Tétrault said.
Five weeks after the boy was taken to the Montreal hospital, Tétrault says the family was told the hospital had made the decision to unplug Arthur, which would end the toddler’s life.
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Tétrault said he was told by the doctors that because of severe dystonia, Arthur could not breathe on his own as the child’s left diaphragm was paralyzed due to the brain damage Arthur had suffered.
“Basically, we were served around Nov. 14, with an ultimatum from the pediatric intensive care unit of the Montreal Children’s Hospital that our child would be unplugged on the 29 of November, and to basically prepare our funeral,” Tétrault said.
The news came as a shock, he said, because the family had been talking with other doctors in the United States, sending them videos of Arthur, and providing details about his medical status and care. The U.S. doctors were responding with plenty of hope for recovery, he said.
“They said, ‘Well, we’ve treated children with 75 percent more brain damage than yours, and they’re going to school today,’” Tétrault said.
Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy
Tétrault said U.S. specialists were recommending hyperbaric oxygen therapy, which is a way to administer oxygen to the brain, with Tétrault saying it has had significant success in the United States. But Tétrault says the MCH didn’t agree.
According to Health Canada, hyperbaric oxygen therapy is a “well-established medical treatment,” saying it can be used for 14 specific conditions. Among the listed ones are when air or gas bubbles go into the bloodstream, carbon monoxide poisoning, thermal burns, and others.
In an online statement, MCH says the procedure is “not recommended by international standards” for the treatment of brain injury as a result of oxygen deprivation after a resuscitated cardiac arrest, which could occur in drowning cases.
Tétrault said he found the procedure had been used for decades by Dr. Paul Harch, a drowning recovery specialist, saying he successfully treated more than 150 children who have been revived after drowning. Dr. Harch offered to speak with the Canadian doctors about the procedure for Arthur.
“I always offered to talk with the doctors, because this is science that the vast, vast majority of doctors are not aware of,” Dr. Harch told The Epoch Times in a phone interview.
When asked for comment, MCH referred The Epoch Times to their online statement, which says the care the hospital provides is “based on the best and most current medical practices.”
The hospital added that in drowning cases involving cardiac arrest with prolonged resuscitation, “survival is rare” and that “children often face severe brain damage, which may result in an unresponsive wakefulness syndrome (permanent vegetative state).”
“In general, there is little hope for the survival of a child whose heart stops beating outside the hospital and who arrives at the hospital without a heartbeat after prolonged cardiopulmonary resuscitation. This can happen in cases such as drowning,” the MCH says.
The hospital added that while hyperbaric oxygen therapy is not recommended for such cases, the “centres where it’s available are generally private, profit-based organizations.”
Dr. Harch said although hyperbaric oxygen is not considered standard, and that the MCH is “justified in their position” that they must follow protocol, the treatment should have been considered for Arthur and for other similar cases when “essentially there is no other treatment” available.
Treatment in New Orleans
After the grim prognosis in Montreal, the family made a quick decision to move the boy to New Orleans for care, booking a private jet to fly him out, with medical staff onboard.
Arthur was immediately given oxygen on the plane through a ventilator. Tétrault said that after around three hours on the ventilator, at 30 percent increased oxygen throughout the flight, Arthur had already stopped showing signs of dystonia and had no more uncontrolled movement.
After three weeks of treatment at the Ochsner Medical Center in New Orleans under Dr. Harch, Arthur was able to breathe on his own, Tétrault said. The boy was released from the hospital after four weeks. The family has been staying in a rental home near the hospital to monitor him, Tétrault said, because they were left “traumatized” by the experience in Montreal.
After experiencing both health care systems, Tetrault sees it as a two different approaches to health care.
“In the U.S., your patient is seen as a source of income, as a client. In Canada, a patient is seen as an expense, as a problem, as a negative issue, and it changes the entire equation,” he said.
“The Montreal Children’s Hospital did a very good job, like 85 percent I would give them as a grade,” he added. “The 15 percent could have easily made a huge world of difference.”
The family has started a GoFundMe page to help with the cost of Arthur’s recovery, to cover treatments, medical transportation, equipment, and ongoing therapies. As of Jan. 27, over $29,300 has been raised towards the $45,000 goal.
