YORKTON -- The family of a 19-year-old Yorkton man, who passed away last week, is searching for answers after his routine medical imaging appointment was postponed due to COVID-19 restrictions.

19-year-old Aaron Ogden is being remembered as a funny, kind and friendly young man.

“He was a very young strong young man, loved farming and loved being active,” Mark Ogden, Aaron’s father said.

In December 2019, Aaron was in a bad accident which resulted in him having a stent implanted into his heart.

“Everything was going well and when he had that stent implanted the doctors had said that we're going to have to keep an eye on him,” Ogden said. “You're going to have to check this stent to make sure everything is okay and so we'll give him a CT scan probably in June.”

Aaron’s family said the appointment was made at the Yorkton Regional Health Centre, but because of COVID-19 regulations it was cancelled. As the months passed, the appointment was never rescheduled and he moved to Calgary.

Last Thursday, Aaron decided to go for a run, which is when his health took a turn for the worst.

“A blood clot was actually forming around the stent at his aorta - its quite a large blood clot its like the size of a small garden hose and this was closed off so much that it was down to like the tip of your ink pen, Ogden said.

Aaron was rushed to the hospital but when doctors opened him up, they discovered his organs were filled with blood. 45 hours later he died.

“There's a good chance that something would have been showing back in June and if they had even seen a little dot they would have gone in and done some simple procedure,” Mark said.

“He would have been in and out and carried on and he'd be walking with us today. But because of COVID rules, they decided to shut this down they didn't check him out and now he's dead.” Aaron’s father said.

The Ogden family is calling on the Saskatchewan Health Authority to try to save others who may be in a similar situation.

“If we could point out that maybe there’s appointments that aren't being made, or perhaps there's a backlog due to earlier closures - this needs to be dealt with and my heart would break to hear this story happen to someone else,” Nick Ogden, Aaron’s uncle, said.

The Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) says it can't comment on this specific situation, but did offer its condolences to the family.

The SHA also says emergency and urgent patients are the priority for services, including diagnostic imaging and priority is based on physician evaluation in consultation with the patient. A review is currently underway to determine what happened in Aaron’s case.

A GoFundMe page has been set up for Ogden’s family and a funeral will be held Thursday in Canora.