A B.C. lady is elevating new considerations in regards to the state of the province’s emergency rooms after she says her husband with terminal most cancers waited 14 hours, solely to be discharged with out remedy.
Melissa McIntyre’s husband Cory has Stage 4 colon most cancers and continues to struggle the illness regardless of being given simply months to dwell in early 2023.
His remedy has concerned an ostomy surgical procedure, which leaves him susceptible to dehydration, and a number of rounds of radiation and chemotherapy.
Final week, after a chemo remedy, McIntyre mentioned Cory grew to become violently in poor health and was unable to maintain water and even his ache treatment down.
“The palliative staff had all the time instructed us that if he missed a dose of his ache meds he would go right into a ache disaster, which basically means you could’t sustain with the ache and your ache meds don’t work correctly, as a result of they’ve to remain constructed up in your system,” she mentioned.
“He had missed a complete bunch of them mainly as a result of he was throwing them up.”
McIntyre mentioned she was additionally frightened about how dehydrated her husband was changing into, and after cellphone calls to his oncology docs and the nurse line was instructed her greatest wager was to go to the emergency room, regardless of considerations he might be uncovered to infections together with his weakened immune system.
Regardless of being instructed somebody would name forward for them, McIntyre mentioned they have been left within the Abbotsford Normal Hospital’s common ready room for hours, and that employees wouldn’t give her husband fluids or anti-nauseants till they noticed a health care provider.
“(The nurse at reception) mentioned, effectively, wait instances are six hours, you’ve gotten three hours left, go sit down,” she mentioned.
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“I perceive that they’re very, very understaffed and really brief on beds. However actually, I’d have been pleased with an IV pole sitting within the nook someplace simply so he was getting the stuff he wanted.”
McIntyre mentioned she ultimately needed to go house and feed her kids and left her husband on the hospital.
He finally waited 14 hours, after which was discharged after being instructed he wasn’t dehydrated, was high-quality, and wanted to go house, she alleged.
“I’m a care aide so I can inform higher than the typical individual, however I believe anybody would have a look at him and see he was severely dehydrated,” she mentioned.
“His eyes have been sunken means into his head, his face had misplaced a lot weight, and at the very least 15 kilos he had misplaced in these couple days.”
The following day, Cory was so dehydrated he couldn’t get off the bed on his personal. She took him to the palliative care facility, the place employees instructed her they didn’t have any beds out there and despatched the couple again to the ER.
This time, she mentioned, palliative employees known as the hospital and directed them to not launch him till one other mattress was out there.
Cory, she mentioned, lastly obtained his IV and fluids after one other eight-hour wait.
“It had been days and days of being dehydrated with no treatment, and now due to that he’s going to need to be within the hospital for in all probability two weeks to regain all the fluids he misplaced, regain the burden he misplaced, and get his ache meds constructed again up in his system once more,” she mentioned.
Fraser Well being acknowledged the household’s frustration and mentioned it had reached out to them about their expertise.
But it surely mentioned within the emergency room setting, sufferers are all the time triaged primarily based on the severity of their signs, not their underlying situation.
“These with life-threatening points are seen first, which can enhance wait instances for sufferers whose points are much less pressing,” spokesperson Nick Eagland mentioned in an e-mail.
“Like many hospitals in B.C. and throughout Canada, we face instances of upper affected person volumes and staffing challenges, which might result in longer wait instances. We’re working onerous to supply secure, well timed care and are grateful for the endurance and understanding of our sufferers, households, and communities.”
It added that BC Most cancers-Abbotsford is the lead company for most cancers care in most circumstances.
In a press release of its personal, BC Most cancers mentioned it has 19 part-time docs and nurse practitioners offering ache and symptom administration, however acknowledged it was “presently in a position to provide this service on a restricted foundation.”
“We’re actively recruiting extra suppliers to extend supplier assist to raised serve sufferers locally,” spokesperson Christopher Foulds mentioned in an e-mail.
McIntyre mentioned she understands the health-care system is dealing with many competing pressures, however mentioned these shouldn’t come on the expense of sufferers in susceptible states like her husband’s.
“The truth that we are able to’t get one thing so simple as IV fluids with out being seen by a health care provider, and why it took 14 hours that day to be seen by a health care provider, after which for that physician to say he wasn’t dehydrated?” she mentioned.
“Most cancers sufferers mustn’t need to go to emergency and sit with all the sick individuals and get sicker and just about get denied assist.”
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