This is a review of the laboratory at Women’s College Hospital ONLY…
I submitted 7 stool samples, carefully done over 3 days…
I had a case of Raccoon Roundworm (Baylisascaris procyonis), which involves very long & dangerous worms…
I made sure to sort through my stool each morning, carefully picking up a worm to put it into the container(my apologies for being graphic)…
Though I knew from comparing photos, & from the fact that I had handled a raccoon(had been hit by a car, I took it to a veterinary emergency clinic), what the worm was, it is hard to get medication without lab confirmation…
The results came back: blood, negative, urine, negative, stool sample, negative…
Apparently the lab found absolutely nothing…Despite having worms in bottles?
Anyways…I had to order Albendazole from an online pharmacy & treat myself…In the interim I got Combantrin (Pyrantel Pamoate)from the pharmacist…
38% of the raccoons in Toronto had raccoon roundworm last time they checked…It can be fatal in humans…One would expect a laboratory to be able to identify a worm in a stool sample when given one…
Worms are also implicated today as being the underlying cause of cancer…Which is why antiparasitics are the first line of treatment when you go to a cancer centre in Mexico(The Mayans were smart)…
Hospitals in Canada need to address the need for worm/parasite identification, especially from a laboratory perspective…If they are missing it in stool samples, then there is no diagnosis, people are left untreated, & worse outcome scenarios are an eventuality…
I am very surprised that the laboratory could not find any worms in 7 bottles full of worms…Disappointed…A brand new building apparently doesn’t mean better technology, better diagnostics, or better standard of health care…Just better placebo effect…