B.C. Children’s Ministry overrules parents, orders surgery to treat boy’s rare condition

The parents of a baby boy born with a rare condition that affects multiple body systems have lost their last-minute bid to get an injunction against having a breathing tube inserted into his airway.

Davis and Riina Lim’s fourth child, Theo, was born just over a year ago with a genetic disorder known as VACTERL that involves a complex array of vertebral, kidney, anal and esophageal anomalies.

The airway anomalies can make breathing difficult and doctors at B.C. Children’s Hospital, where Theo has been getting treatment practically from the day he was born, advised performing a tracheostomy.

But Lim — who has worked as a medical technician in the Canadian military and has spent countless hours in the hospital caring for his son — objected and filed an injunction application on Monday, just a day before the scheduled surgery. The B.C. Supreme Court application failed and the surgery was performed Tuesday.

It went ahead over their objections because doctors had earlier applied to the Ministry of Children and Family Development for an interim custody order.