Emboldened by a multi-million dollar lawsuit recently launched in Alberta, a Saskatoon woman is resuming her battle to have the controversial practice of
chiropractic neck manipulation stopped.
Sharon Mathiason's daughter, Laurie Jean, died in 1998. Her death came some days after a neck adjustment performed by a chiropractor in Saskatoon, and was followed by an inquest that resulted in the profession being told that much more research was needed on the practice of neck adjustments, and that patients should be informed that stroke or death is a risk associated with neck adjustments.
"We don't want to see any more deaths. This is just a belief system. There is
no science to it," Sharon Mathiason is now saying.
Mathiason is compiling information packages which she intends to send to various provincial politicians in Saskatchewan. These packages include a demand that neck manipulations, and other chiropractic practices, be banned, and asking that Saskatchewan Health cut off subsidies for chiropractic.
"Other provinces, such as Ontario and British Columbia, have recently cut off
such subsidies," says Mathiason. "The first step is to have a meeting with
Saskatchewan Health Minister Don McMorris."
Mathiason says that if changes aren't made, she will find a way to attach Saskatchewan chiropractic "victims"
to the class action law suit currently underway in Alberta, or launch something similar in her home province of Saskatchewan.
The Mathiasons settled their lawsuit against the Saskatoon chiropractor out of court in 2001. Details from that case have not been disclosed.
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