A father who doesn’t believe his five-year-old son has asthma has been ordered by a Port Coquitlam judge to give the boy his inhaler due to COVID-19 concerns.
In an urgent court hearing brought via teleconference before Justice R.P. McQuillan at the Port Coquitlam court house last week, the justice wrote that COVID-19 “represents a pervasive threat to all members of the community, but especially those that have underlying health issues.”
People with asthma are considered especially vulnerable “given that COVID-19 is a respiratory illness,” added McQuillan.
In the five years since the child was born, different doctors came to different conclusions about whether he has asthma, according to the decision. In one case, a family doctor prescribed him Flovent and Ventolin inhalers and the mother was instructed in how to administer them. And in 2018 and 2019, the boy was referred to the Eagle Ridge Respiratory Clinic, where he has been seen once every six months. In March, just as the COVID-19 outbreak was ramping up in B.C., a paediatrician at the hospital said she had diagnosed the boy with asthma.
Ever since the mother and father separated over two years ago, the father has refused to administer the inhaler medication as prescribed, according to the mother.
“As the pandemic continued to evolve, she became increasingly apprehensive about the father’s refusal to administer [the boy’s] inhalers,” wrote the justice.
Court documents describe the father as a man who put significant effort into disproving his son’s asthma diagnosis. On one occasion, he claimed without evidence or a name that he went to a doctor to get a second opinion, who then said the father should not follow the mother’s asthma plan because it was “excessive.”
Citing online medical articles, the father also claimed that administering asthma medication could be harmful to children and could precipitate depression, hyperactivity, ADHD and oppositional defiant disorder.
In the end, Justice McQuillan found the mother’s evidence to be “far more persuasive,” adding that “much of the material relied upon by the father to undermine a diagnosis of asthma is either very dated or vague and subject to interpretation.”
As the family swaps parenting week to week, the justice ruled the father must comply with all asthma treatment recommendations made by their doctor.
Read more of our COVID-19 coverage here.
