‘Do your research, advocate’: Alberta radio host with brain cyst says long consult wait shows rural care gaps

‘Do your research, advocate’: Alberta radio host with brain cyst says long consult wait shows rural care gaps

Alberta radio host Kim Johnston says his worsening symptoms and a months-long wait for a neurosurgery consult show how specialist delays are straining rural health care.

‘Do your research, advocate’: Alberta radio host with brain cyst says long consult wait shows rural care gaps

A longtime Medicine Hat radio host Kim Johnston says he never imagined he’d be forced off the air by a medical crisis that left him struggling to speak. But after months of jaw tremors and trouble forming words, Johnston finally received an MRI — and with it, a diagnosis. “In October of this year it revealed a growth at the base of my brain, and it’s called an arachnoid cyst,” Johnston said. Johnston booked a neurosurgery consult immediately, bu…