To the Editor:
Everyone knows how hard it is to get a surgical date.
We have all read, heard, watched the horror stories.
Well, here's one more for your pile of ... whatever. In August 2020, my husband recognized the pain and contacted his primary care physician about a second hip replacement. The x-ray confirmed that he was bone on bone.
On Nov. 9 of this year, the doctor's office called and we drove to Winnipeg. We saw these x-rays and the surgeon told us that it needed to be done ASAP. When we were given a date of Dec. 6 at the Grace Hospital in Winnipeg, we were ecstatic! He was to be there by 6:15 a.m. We left the doctor's office and drove straight home. All the paperwork for this surgery was stamped in red: Emergent!
By the time we got to Thompson, we were both stiff and sore. Eight hours on Highway 6 is a very long time!
Because you cannot fly from our home in Thompson and get anywhere by 6:15 a.m. (unless you have your own airplane), we had to take a Monday flight and a hotel room for Monday night. The winter weather is always chancy. We would have been driving on a dangerous road. I had flipped my car south of Grand Rapids only a couple of years ago in December and we would be travelling as two people whose combined age is nearly 130 years. Good reasons to fly!
We did everything possible for the hospital appointment on Dec. 6. My husband spoke to the Grace Hospital nurse, the physio department and the ortho department in the week before the appointment in December.
We came into Winnipeg early. We rented a car so we didn't have to depend on a cab to get us to the hospital on time. We made special arrangements for our beloved pet.
And then ... my husband got into a gown, went for more x-rays and then spent in excess of five hours laying on a gurney in a room that was 17 degrees! I went and got him a warm blanket. No one came and checked on him as he lay there shivering in a gown with his coat over him. At about 11:30 a.m., when someone did come to talk to him it was to say, "I'm sorry, I have bad news for you. We have no recovery beds. You have to go home." And then, "I know how you feel." How insulting! How absolutely insulting!
Between the two trips it has cost us about $4,000 in unreimbursed money. We could have spent the money and gone to another place to get the surgery. Between the two of us, we have worked and paid taxes for the better part of 90 years! My husband is a hard-working man, who has been a diabetic for more than 30 years and he cannot be on the waiting list forever! We have no new date!
Just one more Aboriginal person that this government does not care about.
Well, I care!
Ellen Dale
Thompson
Editor's Note: Ellen Dale also sent this letter to Manitoba Health Minister Audrey Gordon.
