1 week Ago By Shawna Forester Smith
Seven. Unlucky No. 7.
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Two weeks ago Saturday, not only did we discover I had broken my leg sometime in the past month, I also went septic for the seventh time this year. And again, it was decided that I was too sick and unstable to stay at Deer Lodge. I was sent by ambulance to the Grace Hospital.
I had to be coaxed into going. I knew this was not going to be fun. For starters, I spent more than nine hours in a hallway without receiving any treatment.
I had a high fever, was tachycardic, in a lot of pain, nauseous, dehydrated and had difficulty breathing. It’s not only unsafe but inhumane to not treat a sepsis patient for nine hours. Finally, my mom got someone to help me because it was clear I was not doing well.
They did an assessment, including an EKG, and I was immediately taken back to an ER bed. It would take hours to get medication to settle my pain and nausea and fluids to address my dehydration. And hours for antibiotics for the sepsis.
Hours count with sepsis. Usually, they try to get fluid resuscitation and antibiotics on board within an hour of arriving at the hospital. It’s called the golden hour.
This helps prevent things like septic shock. Pain management, wound care, getting my ileostomy emptied, being turned and other basic care tasks were challenging to get addressed. This adds to the frustration, stress and discomfort.
Luckily, I was returned to Deer Lodge a few days later. They are able to cope with my complicated care plan. They give pain meds on time.
It’s not that the Grace didn’t try to; it’s just that people like me are a lot for the ER — it’s not an actual in-patient medical unit. It’s not the fault of the staff. They are doing the best they can in what I can only describe as impossible circumstances.
Patients are crammed in every imaginable space on stretchers, with no privacy. It’s undignified. It’s no way to treat sick, vulnerable people.
We should not be scared to go to the ER. We should not anticipate getting inadequate care. But this is the reality.
Even being really sick doesn’t guarantee you a treatment space — you’re relegated to wait on a stretcher in the hall for longer than standardized triage protocols recommend. ERs are only designed to deal with one chief complaint. They aren’t designed to handle chronic illnesses and disabilities.
They’re too busy for that. Sadly, this story plays out for my fellow residents on our chronic care unit when they get sent to hospital. Often they are returned at lightning speed, sometimes even when they aren’t stable.
That’s why it’s important to move patients out of the ER and onto hospital wards where they can manage those things and have the staffing and resources to do so. But getting a bed promptly is like winning the lottery these days — nearly impossible. You can wait in the ER for up to a week for a bed.
Some people never get one and spend their entire stay in the ER. What I want for Hanukkah this year is ERs that aren’t overloaded with more patients than they can safely take care of. That people going to the ER don’t endure long, arduous waits.
That people aren’t treated like cattle and left on stretchers in hallways for days with no privacy or comfort or even a call bell, in some cases. I want manageable workloads for our doctors, physician assistants, nurses and health-care aides who are trying so hard to give the best care possible despite utterly impossible working conditions. I want shuttered ERs to reopen in rural communities.
We’re incredibly lucky that we have staff who are committed to working in our ERs despite the difficult working conditions. The staff could take jobs elsewhere in the system but they don’t. They are heroes in my book.
Their dedication is a testament to how much the staff do care about Manitobans. The staff just cannot provide the level of care they want to. The premier and health minister need to spend a day in an ER shadowing a nurse.
See what they go through. See what a patient goes through. You cannot spend time in an ER and not be affected by what goes on.
By the immense suffering and indignities people endure. Some empathy isn’t the worst thing in the world to have. In fact, empathy might motivate those in power to act faster and more aggressively.
No one should be considering putting their life at risk rather than seeking emergency care. But people do. Nor should people put their lives at risk by going to an ER and forced to endure long waits with serious conditions.
Or drive to another town further away because their local ER is closed. We shouldn’t have to accept these long waits, subpar care, unsafe working conditions for staff and ER closures. Speak up.
Share your experiences. Write to your MLA, the health minister and premier. Gather at the legislature and protest.
Tell the government and the organizations responsible for care that this is not OK. We won’t let our ERs continue to buckle under the insane pressure and get even worse. As the saying goes: silence equals consent or tacit permission.
If we continue to remain silent, the message is: this situation is acceptable. Shawna (Shoshana) Forester Smith is a chronically ill, disabled Ojibwa writer and health-care advocate who lives on a chronic-care unit at Deer Lodge Centre. shawna.
[email protected] Shawna (Shoshana) Forester Smith is a chronically ill, disabled Ojibwe writer and health-care advocate who lives on a chronic-care unit at Deer Lodge Centre.
Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider . Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism.
Thank you for your support. Shawna (Shoshana) Forester Smith is a chronically ill, disabled Ojibwe writer and health-care advocate who lives on a chronic-care unit at Deer Lodge Centre. Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism.
If you are not a paid reader, please consider . Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
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