Thompson resident headed back to Winnipeg for rescheduled hip surgery

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This article was published 31/01/2023 (950 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Thompson man who flew to Winnipeg and waited five hours in a hospital gown for an urgent hip replacement that didn’t happen is cautiously optimistic he won’t be disappointed a second time.

Leon Gillis, who figures he lost more than $2,500 in the ill-fated medical adventure in early December, is now scheduled to have the surgery Feb. 10.

Although his physical symptoms have worsened while he waits, Gillis said he is “not as excited as I was the first time because of what happened.”

“I’ve got nothing else but hope,” the 59-year-old mine worker told the Free Press from his northern Manitoba home.

“I can’t see it going bad twice in a row.”

Gillis was one of seven patients whose scheduled surgeries at Grace Hospital on Dec. 6 were cancelled at the last minute because of capacity issues.

The procedure — his second replacement — was considered urgent and scheduled within a month of his appointment with a surgeon because he has an advanced form of arthritis and bone-on-bone contact in the hip, leaving him in constant pain and affecting sleep and mobility.

He estimates it cost him nearly $3,000 in travel expenses and lost wages after missing work and flying 800 kilometres south, although he did receive a $300 reimbursement from the Northern Patient Transport program, about a quarter of the cost of his flight.

His wife Ellen Dale complained to the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority and to Health Minister Audrey Gordon about the experience. She said she never received a response from Gordon.

In a response to a Free Press inquiry in December, a spokesperson for the health minister confirmed Dale’s letter had been received and was being reviewed.

“Just to be ignored after what we went through is beyond rude,” Dale said. “We’ve been taxpayers in this province for a long time. It’s just beyond rude, and I don’t expect that. I teach my children better.”

Gillis and Dale are keeping their fingers crossed as they prepare to fly back to Winnipeg next week.

“He’s an optimist,” she said. “I’m a little more cautious, but he’s been not well since.”

katie.may@freepress.mb.ca