A partner’s plea - Lack of access and beds results in multiple injuries and events. ‘Abandoned by the system’.
“The Emergency Department disruption at Prince Rupert Regional Hospital today turned into an absolute medical nightmare for my family in Prince Rupert BC this morning. It then devolved into an all day horror show.
My husband began having seizures at 6 AM. I called 911 and an ambulance arrived to help him. They told us that the ER was closed and they would have to take him to Terrace for help. I said YES whatever we need to do to get him medical attention. By the time they had him loaded in the ambulance it was already after 6:30 and they said that the ER here would be open at 8 and it could be quicker than driving him to Terrace. That made sense so I agreed, but then having to wait in an ambulance outside of a hospital while he suffered more tonic clonic (grand mal) seizures until 8 AM was terrifying.
Yes, he was in the care of some very capable and fantastic first responders, but he had no access to the emergency medication he desperately needed. When we were finally admitted to the ER he was assessed and x-rayed, given pain medication and released! He was not released because he was okay (because he wasn’t), but because they don’t have enough beds and they got totally swamped as soon as the doors opened.
With no other choice I drove him home and hoped and prayed that he would be alright. Well, no surprise, he wasn’t. On the way from the car to the house he suffered another tonic clonic seizure and fell head first onto a concrete slab where he sustained a 5 – 6 inch laceration clear down to the skull and knocked a front tooth out.
I had to call 911 again and I was told there were no ambulances available. With him seizing on the ground and bleeding profusely from the head I begged the 911 operator to send some kind of help, the RCMP, fire rescue, anyone to help me get him in the car and to the hospital. They told me that it was at the dispatchers discretion and I didn’t know what kind of service agreements Prince Rupert had. I pleaded again and again to get help and she just repeated that no ambulances were available.
I yelled for help as loud as I could to try to get a neighbour or anyone for that matter to help me. I was on the ground with him putting pressure on the enormous head wound, and now trying to keep him calm and from trying to stand up as he was coming out of the seizure so he didn’t hurt himself more. Never in my wildest dreams did I think that I would be left alone on the ground in my driveway, with my husband bleeding profusely from the head and refused help of any kind by the 911 operator.
I eventually got the help of a friend and 2 neighbours to get him into a car and back to the ER where they gave him a CT scan, 15 staples in his head and a HUGE dose of seizure medication and released him AGAIN! I was again told that they didn’t have enough beds or staff to admit him.
I write this as I sit in the ER with him for the third time today. This time he is vomiting blood. I wish with my whole soul that we had gone to Terrace at 6 AM this morning. I truely believe my husband's head would be undamaged and his teeth would be in tact and he would have received proper medical care and not just the equivalent of first aid and lousy diagnostics. How sad is it that I wish we had gone an hour and a half away for medical care instead of "waiting" for the "emergency room" to open?
Nothing about this is right. Nothing about this is okay. How many people does this kind of thing need to happen to before something changes? People are going to die because of this. I know that we have a doctor shortage that is only going to get worse as more and more of them leave, but the government, OUR government needs to step up and do something! What are they doing? What is their action plan? Does anyone know? What say you Jennifer Rice?”
https://globalnews.ca/news/10373948/prince-rupert-health-care-horror-story/