Canadian "free" "health" "care" - three lies for the price of one!I suppose I should have been tipped off by the fact that the surgeon who performed my 84-year-old Mom's angioplasty on Friday at Toronto General Hospital couldn't be bothered to check up on her afterward. This same surgeon discharged her Saturday morning from TGH - by phone.
On the following Tuesday afternoon, my Mother suffered a "False Aneurysm" - this, the paramedic explained, is a fairly common side effect that may have been caused by the anti-clotting medication she had been prescribed. However, I read now that "The most common cause of pseudoaneurysm is femoral artery puncture during cardiac catheterisation." Hmmmm, thanks for that follow-up, Doctor.
An angioplasty requires that an incision be made in the groin in order to access the femoral artery via which they transport the stent that keeps a plugged heart artery "open." When Mom's femoral artery opened her thigh and groin swelled with the mass of blood that collected, until it looked like someone had taken a baseball bat to her.
She was scared, in a great deal of pain and very weak by the time she hit TGH's ER at 6:20pm, though the paramedics had stabilized her. The paramedics stayed with her, monitoring her vitals and answering my questions as best they could until well after their shift ended at 7pm. At 8:30 pm, in order to release the paramedics, my mother was officially admitted to TGH. Admission consisted of moving her from the ambulance gurney to a hospital gurney and pushing her 20 yards down the corridor, next to the homeless guy with the festering sores on his legs. The attentive care of the paramedics was replaced by ... nothing.
We waited nearly an hour for a resident to finally stop by and enquire what the matter was. She had no prior knowledge of why my mother had been admitted. To my shock she asked, in all seriousness, if the angioplasty had been a success. Sensing my anger she summoned a doctor and nurse. The doctor ordered a physical examination and as there was no room available, the nurse informed us Mom would be examined in the corridor though an unused eye examination room sat empty next to us . As the nurse made no effort to help, I took it upon myself to undress my bedridden mother in full view of the passing parade of visitors, patients and staff. Meanwhile, a street person dumped a filled adult diaper on the floor and replaced her own soiled bed linens in the ward next to us.
They ordered an ultrasound and informed us that a vascular surgeon would be called in. The ultrasound technician showed up earlier than anticipated, and mom had her pictures done shortly before 11 pm. This procedure afforded Mom some privacy, as WHIMSICALLY, they chose to conduct it in the STILL unused eye examination room off the corridor this time. The nurse made her second appearance, sticking her head in to enquire "who left her like this?" - mom was in a partial state of undress, uncomfortably positioned and without the recommended bags of saline solution in place to compress the swelling. I replied that the Ultrasound technician had just left, having finished her session. The nurse left without assisting and five minutes later clocked out to end her shift.
The Bitch Nurse turned up next. Her primary role as caregiver seems to involve chatting with other staff when not complaining to patients that the "real nurse" hadn't showed up for her shift. My mother is a stoic, with a woman's superior capacity to handle pain. I have never seen her nor anyone else for that matter cry out when giving blood, until now. Perhaps the Bitch Nurse might have reconsidered her site selection had she been in a better mood and not chosen last week's inflamed entry point. Mom was then unceremoniously dumped back in the corridor.
Around midnight, the vascular surgeon arrived and confirmed that a false aneurysm had occurred. Two possible courses of action were explained. Surgery to repair the artery, or a non-invasive, less risky alternative called a Thrombin Injection. During this procedure, the site is frozen locally and the "Thrombin" is injected to form a clot in the femoral artery. The course of action would be determined after a consult with Cardiology.
As 2 a.m. neared, we still had no word from Cardiology.At that point the vascular surgeon and her boss elected to determine a course of action after a second look when the lab opened at 8a.m.
I arrived home at 3 am, guiltily having left my Mom to fend for herself in the hospital corridor as without at least a couple of hours rest, I would be useless to her the next day. Besides, it was infuriating and depressing watching staff walk by pretending to acknowledge patient requests, including those of my mother and myself, only to have them ignored. I asked the vascular surgeon at one point to please have a look at my mother as she had begun to complain of increased pain and swelling. However, she was left to fend for herself.
The Thrombin Injection was indeed conducted shortly after the lab was opened at 8 am, just as the vascular surgeon had promised, and was deemed a success by the Chief Surgeon. We were informed that pending a quick final approval from ER, Mom would be released to my care. She was wheeled back to her "room" in the corridor by 9 am. Noon arrived and despite our numerous supplications - still no release. ER informed us that they were waiting for final approval from Vascular, who after many pages informed ER that final approval depended on word from Cardiology. I informed the nurse that keeping an ill, 84-year old woman in a hospital corridor for 18 hours was not the type of care that anyone should be expected to tolerate. In fact my cat receives better treatment from his vet. It worked: we were released by 1 pm. No word on whether Cardiology ever bothered to return a call.
Very early in the AM, I stumbled upon the ER's "Continuous Improvement Whiteboard."
I wrote: Continuous Improvement? This is a cruel joke.
I was pleased to hear a staffer complain to another shortly before we were liberated: "Whoever wrote that did it in permanent ink." "
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