
Hinshaw apologizes to Alta. family upset death of boy with inoperable brain tumour was reported 'another COVID case'
CTV
The family of a 14-year-old Alberta boy who recently died doesn’t want his nine-month cancer fight overlooked because he tested positive for COVID-19 shortly before dying.
The family of a 14-year-old Alberta boy who recently died doesn’t want his nine-month cancer fight overlooked because he tested positive for COVID-19 shortly before dying.
Nathanael Spitzer’s death on Oct. 7 was reported by the province several days later as Alberta’s youngest COVID-19 fatality.
But Nathanael’s siblings say doctors found an inoperable tumour on their brother’s brain months earlier.
“It was a high-grade glioma and the doctors, they didn’t even give him the nine months. They didn’t give us an exact number but they really suggested that five months, six months, maybe,” Jonatan Spitzer told CTV News Edmonton.
“Basically, the whole nine months he was fighting for cancer, and then two days before his death, it was just a COVID case,” Simone Spitzer, Nathanael's sister, added.
“We just want to get the story straight.”
Nathanael spent his last months in hospital, always with one parent beside his bed.