In December 2019 Aaron was in a major car accident where he was t-boned on the highway. The force of the accident throwing his body sideways jostled his heart so badly that it weakened his aorta. They had to put a stint in the vessel in order to strengthen the walls of his aorta.

Aaron recovered miraculously from brain damage and a broken pelvis to almost a full recovery. He was certainly a different person, but he was fully active and fully functional. He went through everything from the ICU to rehab and the Saskatchewan health care system was incredible and gave Aaron the best care. Everyone gave 110%. We are so grateful to them.

As ongoing care Aaron was to have continual checkups on the stint in his aorta and so he was scheduled for a CT scan in June 2020. But that was cancelled in Yorkton, SK due to Covid regulations. He was told it would be rescheduled. July went by and then into August and no word of rescheduling.

On August 13th Aaron went for a morning run and collapsed on the sidewalk. He was holding his head and throwing up and he couldn’t feel or move his legs. It turns out there was a blood clot forming at the stint in his aorta and as he went for a jog the clot exploded showering through his lower body clogging the blood vessels supplying his organs and muscles with oxygen. He survived for 45 more hours as the incredible health care staff tried to save him. They did their best but the damage was too much.

This blood clot had been forming for some time. This stint is the size of a small garden hose and so much blood is constantly flowing through it. The surgeons said that it was closed to the size of a small hole the size of the tip of an ink pen. If Aaron had gone to that CT scan in June or even if it was rescheduled in July than they may have seen something developing in his aorta and been able to deal with. The end result would be my son still walking amongst us. Instead out of the fear and panic of COVID, rules were made that cancelled a simple procedure that would have saved my sons life.

This procedure was to be done in Yorkton, SK and was cancelled due to COVID, but there is zero COVID cases in the hospital in Yorkton. It appears to me that now in the Yorkton area we have a COVID related death, my son Aaron Ogden. In fear bad rules have been set up and procedures that may save lives are not being done out of fear of spreading COVID. While trying to save lives they have killed others. This is unacceptable. I’m calling on those who make these rules to answer for this.

Let’s not kill more people because of fear. This also does not have to be a trade off of one danger for another. These procedures, like a CT scan can be done safely with all COVID screening in place. I think something needs to be changed.

Thank you for reading this and please share this so that we don’t have to have any more senseless deaths.