‘Medicare system killed my mother’

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This article was published 11/02/2003 (8355 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A 58-year-old Winnipeg grandmother died last week after waiting more than two years to have the heart surgery that could have saved her life.

“The medicare system killed my mother,” said Sean Gorsuch, the son of Diane Gorsuch.

Diane Gorsuch died Feb. 4 after a heart attack, never having undergone the surgery she was told she needed in 2000. Sean Gorsuch said his mother’s surgeon told him following her death that her heart problems were treatable.

“I spoke to the doctor and he said, ‘if I operated on your mother when I wanted to, she’d be alive today,'” Sean Gorsuch said.

The surgeon, who Sean Gorsuch won’t identify because he blames the system, not the surgeon, told the family he only gets a certain amount of operating time each week from the hospital and is therefore forced to prioritize patients. Diane Gorsuch was never considered an emergency case and was repeatedly bumped in favour of more urgent cases.

Diane had a heart attack in May 1995 and for five years was treated with drugs and a special vegetarian diet. In 2000, she was told she needed surgery to repair three blocked arteries and was put on the waiting list.

The first date she was given for surgery was Jan. 2, 2003, but her place was taken by a more critical patient. She was rescheduled for Jan. 14, but she was bumped again and rescheduled for Feb. 4, the day she died.

Diane had a heart attack on Jan. 30 and died at the Grace Hospital five days later from brain damage due to a lack of oxygen during the 25 minutes her heart had stopped.

Sean Gorsuch said his mother had recently found a new love, had retired and was looking forward to having the surgery so she could travel and spend more time with her two grandchildren.

“She was looking so forward to the surgery, to getting a fresh start on life,” Sean Gorsuch said. “She thought she’d have another 20 years.”

He said someone has to answer for why his mother died because she couldn’t access the treatment that would have saved her life.

Sean wrote to Health Minister Dave Chomiak and demanded an autopsy. He urges others to do the same.

“We all deserve better care,” Sean said. “Your mother could be next.”

Chomiak said he will find out what happened with Diane’s case.

“From my perspective, from the family’s perspective, it’s quite a concern,” Chomiak said. “I’ve written to the WRHA and I’ve asked them to investigate.”

Dr. Brock Wright, chief medical officer for the WRHA, said he is treating it like other complaints from patients or their families.

“We’re reviewing the case to make sure there isn’t anything more we could have done to change the outcome,” Wright said.

Wright will work with the medical examiner’s office, which conducted the autopsy on Diane Gorsuch last week.

Liberal Leader Jon Gerrard and Tory health critic John Loewen were both outraged yesterday.

“This should never have happened,” Gerrard said.

Both have hammered the NDP government on the province’s adult heart surgery program for more than a year. The number of heart surgeons in the province has dropped to five from nine, and Loewen said if the NDP did a better job retaining and recruiting doctors, people like Diane Gorsuch wouldn’t die waiting.

“The biggest problem in our system right now is the wait to get service,” Loewen said.

Wright said the number of heart surgeries done in the province is on the rise again after a three-year decline. He expects 1,200 surgeries will be performed this year compared to 1,100 last year.

Wright said the investigation into what happened in Diane Gorsuch’s case should take about a week to complete.

mia.rabson@freepress.mb.ca