Call to Action:

The world's 4th highest death rate in 2010 was from cerebrovascular diseases. MS has an unknown cause. Since 2009 Canadians have been aware of a new procedure used to treat Chronic Cerebro-Spinal Venous Insufficiency, or CCSVI. This procedure reduces some of the symptom of MS. MS patients want to undergo the procedure. It is similar to heart balloon-angioplasty, only it treats the jugular and chest veins, allowing better outflow from the veins of the brain.

Upwards of 400 deaths each year in Canada alone are due to MS. That's more than one every day. The death rate from suicide of MS patients in Canada is seven times higher than the normal population.

The procedure to treat CCSVI is identical to procedures used in several other vein conditions. It is being withheld from MS patients in Canada, while studies are ongoing to elaborate on our knowledge of it. Because MS patients here cannot legally be treated at home, in a health care system that is envied by people around the world, they are traveling as far away as India to get the treatment.

It is being refined elsewhere by responsible Interventional Radiologists. The tools and equipment required for close vein inspection have been updated, even in the last year. Many doctors are performing it regularly throughout the world. An estimated 12,000 people with MS have had this procedure.

Not, however, in Canada, because of legal hurdles kept in place by some specialists who feel they must defend their medical turf. Their legal maneuvers threaten the medical licenses of any doctors who perform the procedure. Canadians can only have it done in another country.

When they get back they are shunned by some doctors, and death has resulted from lack of follow-up care at home.