Stories

In June 2022 my father started having a fever and was constantly tired. His family doctor treated him for a urinary tract infection for two months. His symptoms were on the back burner while my mom was reading his blood trying to diagnose him herself. We were constantly waiting for tests to be done. My dad went to the hospital for a blood clot in his leg, three days later he was gone. We still don’t know his initial diagnosis other than doctors telling us he had acute carcinoma. Long story short we were enjoying life together in June by September he was dead. He was healthy, happy, and filled with life.

My father was admitted to NRGH emergency on May 4 with extreme pain in his right knee. He was admitted to the ER and diagnosed with Pseudomonas Bacteria and put on IV antibiotics. An orthopedic surgeon was called in to wash the knee to remove as much of the bacteria as possible. The bacteria was not subsiding with the antibiotics so a second wash was done on his knee and they discovered a torn meniscus, so removed the fragments at the same time. He was in the orthopedic ward for several weeks and finally moved to the Low-Intensity Rehab unit for rehabilitation so that he could eventually go home. It has been over 5 weeks now, and he is still in hospital, without daily scheduled rehab or physio or movement out of his bed. He is now plagued with bed sores on his backside and the heel of his good leg and has yet to get out of bed to walk. This is a result of a lack of movement and assistance to get out of bed. He is rarely moved out of his bed into a chair and physio is inconsistent and sporadic.
NRGH is grossly understaffed with no consistency of nursing staff on any floor, resulting in a catch-up each time someone new is on staff. We commonly hear “We are doing the best we can, we are understaffed”. They are all trying their best and you can tell are getting frustrated as well. While Dad is in the Low-Intensity Rehab unit, there is no focus on rehabilitation to get patients home. Many of the patients remain in bed all day and are waiting for placement into other facilities. There is no consistency with physiotherapy and no plan to move Dad out of bed to get stronger. They have given Dad regular pain medication and a quick-release pain medication just before physio so he can endure the pain, and at times there has been no medication available on the floor, so physio has been sent away, only to show up another day, if we are lucky! There are limited staff to assist him in getting out of bed, and as Dad is over 6 feet, he needed a wheelchair with leg extenders so he could raise his leg and knee. They ordered him a wheelchair and it has been broken for over a week! So he just stays in bed, only to get weaker, more depressed, unable to move, and covered with bed sores! It is heartbreaking. We, as a family are there on a daily basis, to take him food, and help him with his exercises and care as best we can, however, we are not physiotherapists, nor are we trained to move him from the bed. There appears to be no plan for his rehabilitation so we can get him home and free up a bed. There is no one to coordinate anything with, hard to find someone to talk to, and no one to advocate for us. It is like living in a third-world country, and an abysmal way to treat our tax-paying citizens and particularly our loved ones.
This is a crisis and more attention must be paid to what is happening at NRGH. It is now almost 6 weeks, and we do not see any plan or progress in sight and in the meantime, are watching our Dad shrivel away. We do not know what to do.

Have been without a doctor for 2 & 1/2 years. Am 77 years old and have health problems. I spend my retirement trying to get virtual care appointments and going to Urgent Care but they do not work well. Virtual Care does not have your records and Urgent Care cannot refer you to a specialist. I’ve tried the walk-in clinic (the one and only) for over 140,000 people, but live 50 minutes from it and when I get there they’ve told me to try back at 5 PM. When I manage to go to the US I pay for my blood tests and see specialists. We do not have a sound medical system and people are dying because of the lack of one. Of all the socialist medical countries Canada rates last. My suggestion is to fix it.

My husband and I moved from Ontario to Ladysmith in the summer of 2022 and registered at BC Health Connect for a family doctor immediately. We have been waiting to be assigned to a healthcare provider ever since and have no way of knowing when one will be available to us. In the meantime, we have to wake up early and line up for 3 hrs in the only walk-in clinic open in the area in Duncan. This situation is unacceptable and causing us stress.

On April 8, 2024 (9 weeks ago) I was hospitalized overnight with a TIA that was brought on by an anxiety attack. I had an MRI and CT Scan before I was discharged from the hospital on April 9th. I was given prescriptions for the largest dose of atorvastatin (80 mg per day 20 times what I had been taking every second day) that can be administered to a patient and a significant increase in blood pressure medication as well as a blood thinner, Apo-Clopidogrel. The side effects of these particular medications scare me and cause stress which is a trigger to a TIA. I needed explanations about the medications as well as interpretations of the MRI and CT scans. Still, I am waiting for my follow-up appointment with a neurologist/heart specialist. I was told by our Rapid Stroke Clinic here in Nanaimo that after I did my week holter test they would make an appointment for me. After many phone calls to the Stroke Clinic, they then said they didn’t have a referral from a doctor. My doctor said he had submitted a referral on April 9th. My doctor’s receptionist was unable to get through to the Stroke Clinic to see when I could have a Follow-Up appointment. Once it was the month of May and one could not get any answer at the Hospital Stroke Clinic and it doesn’t allow one to leave a voice message, I decided to go to Emergency. They could get through to the Stroke Clinic on the phone and explained my situation. Two days later I did receive a call from the Stroke Clinic but the doctor who I was to see was going on holiday for two weeks in a week so no appointment could be made until after that. Through persistence I now have my Follow-Up appointment on June 25th – twelve weeks or 3 months after the original TIA. The cause of my TIAs is STRESS and anxiety. All I have got from our present Heart Health system is MORE STRESS!

On December 1, 2023, I was working from home. I had just finished a work call and went to grab a cup of tea. I felt a compressed feeling in my chest which then radiated to my upper back and shoulders becoming a severe pain. I began to sweat profusely. I knew I was having a heart attack. My husband called 911. The fire department and paramedics were at my home in less than 5 minutes. I was at the Nanaimo emergency room quickly. I had a STEMI heart attack with 100% blockage on the right side of my heart. I was given the only drug treatment available at the hospital to attempt to open the clot-blocked artery attempting to stabilize me for transport to Victoria. In my case I was lucky and the drugs partially worked. Once at Vic Jubilee, I had the first of two angioplasties. Two stents on the right side. Six weeks later two more stents on the left side of my heart with additional blockages we are now keeping an eye on. I will live with heart muscle damage and reduced life expectancy not because I didn’t have good care but because I wasn’t able to receive the care I needed (cath lab and angioplasty within 90 minutes of the heart attack) in the narrow window of time that we heart failure patients have to maximize our chances of recovery and improved outcomes. I am a 58-year-old female and know how lucky I was. If we had a cardiac cath lab in Nanaimo it would be life-saving.

My mother was having chest pains and was sent by ambulance to NRGH in Feb of 2022. She sat in the emergency room for 3.5 hours while she was having a heart attack and in excruciating pain. I went to the nurse’s station 3 times to ask for help and they were very rude and dismissive, told me they put a sticky on my mom’s file. Finally, they got her in for some blood work and that is when they told us she actually had a heart attack. She could have died in the emergency room while she was having one. The care was just unbelievable for someone who came in by ambulance having chest issues.

I am 84 years old and have had several visits to the emergency room at NRGH during the past year. I feel I am in a good position to assess our healthcare system. My visits to the emergency room were due to Afib episodes. During my visits, I spent between 3.5 and 9 hours waiting in a very uncomfortable seat till all my tests were done and I could get to see the doctor. In all three cases, I had numerous tests done to assess my condition. In 2 of the cases, I was able to end the Afib episode without being cardioverted. Still, the tests were done and a thorough review was done by the doctor. I feel that the doctors and nurses provided excellent care even though they were under obvious stress. The wait times were excessive and very uncomfortable. In the last case, I was still testing positive for COVID-19 yet was sitting with over 100 other people in the waiting room. During my visits, I was able to talk to the nursing staff. The younger nurses are struggling not only with overwhelming working conditions but also large debts from training and struggling to find accommodations within their budgets. The older nurses were approaching burnout due to the exhausting workloads. This being said all the nursing staff were very pleasant and thorough in their work. On the other side of the coin when seeing a doctor they have a full understanding of the patient’s history when they meet. During my visits, the doctors were very thorough and prepared to answer any questions even though they were heavily backlogged.

 As a long-time resident of Nanaimo, I recently experienced heart troubles requiring a visit to the ER at NRGH. Due to the lack of space in the cardiac unit, I spent two days in the ER before being moved to the cardiac floor. After my five-day stay in the Cardiac unit, I still had to be sent to Royal Jubilee in Victoria at the Cardiac short-stay unit. The level of care given there was amazing! I have nothing, but praise for the people who work there. NRGH needs updated cardiac services now so that patient care is not put at risk.

I have age-related macular degeneration that is treated by a local ophthalmologist ie eye injections that cost me $120 per shot. Most people have access to a retinal specialist and, as such, they do not have to pay for the injections. There are no retinal specialists in the Central and North Island. There was one in Nanaimo but she is leaving to go back to Alta. Even if there was a retinal specialist in Nanaimo, it is a situation that is not helpful to this community or further North eg Tahsis, Gold River, etc. The response that I have received from the office of the Minister of Health is that many people have to drive to see medical specialists. The fact is, one cannot drive after an injection. Many of us are older with limited means and other health problems that care not conducive to long drives. It’s odd. Even Fort St John has a retinal specialist, so does Terrace etc. We do not.