Man despairs for health system after mother, 89, spends week on stretcher in Grace Hospital hallway

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 25/10/2023 (684 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Winnipeg man is speaking out after watching his elderly mother languish in an emergency-room hallway for more than a week, alongside more than a half-dozen other senior patients awaiting transfers.

“She is just so tired and exhausted,” Alan Gorlick said of his mom, Helen, who was admitted to Grace Hospital on Oct. 17, after falling in her home the previous day.

“It makes me sad. She is just one face to the story, but looking around and seeing everybody else’s mothers and fathers in the same situation, it’s like, something needs to be done.”

Helen, 89, waited about 18 hours before her initial visit with a doctor, and two days before getting an X-ray that determined she suffered no broken bones but required rehabilitative treatment to help regain her mobility.

She was placed on a stretcher in a hospital hallway until being transferred to the Misericordia Health Centre Wednesday afternoon.

Unable to move or recline due to her injury, she was confined to a diaper and stuck in a semi-sitting position, developing bed sores as a result. For most of that time, a cloth curtain was her only source of privacy, Gorlick said.

Gorlick, who had visited his mother every day, added “the ER was filled with aging seniors lining the halls,” as other people similarly awaited transfers.

“They are basically all taking space in our ER because there’s no room or a bed in a geriatric rehabilitation hospital for them to get the help they need,” he said. “There’s nothing I’m saying negatively about the staff in the hospital. They have been amazing, but it’s more about the system.”

Heather den Boer, Gorlick’s ex-wife, also visited Helen at the Grace, calling the circumstances of her former mother-in-law’s stay “undignified.”

“Until it’s personalized, until it’s somebody’s mother and grandmother and this is the situation, it’s very hard for people to relate to,” den Boer said. “We are just becoming a society of people that are constantly waiting to feel better and have a better quality of life… it’s a sad, sad state.”

Den Boer said she wants to see a transparent, actionable plan laid out by Manitoba’s new NDP government outlining how it plans to address the health-care system’s deficiencies.

The Winnipeg Regional Health Authority deferred requests for comment regarding the Grace to Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara.

“It’s very troubling to hear, and it’s a health situation that is unacceptable,” Asagwara told the Free Press. “I think Manitobans across the board would agree that when folks access care in emergency rooms, they expect treatment that is able to meet their needs in a timely way, in a dignified way.”

On Wednesday evening, the health authority’s online service was reporting the wait time in the Grace ER of approximately 11 hours, with 39 patients waiting and 43 in the treatment area.

The service does not track how many patients are awaiting transfers, and the data was not immediately available from the minister’s office.

“The reality is, in terms of what is happening in that particular department, it does change on a steady basis… but we do know there are other families likely having experiences that we want to see improve,” Asagwara said.

“We know the health system leaders are taking this very seriously and taking steps to provide the supports needed to address the situation.”

Asagwara credited the Gorlick family for advocating on behalf of Helen.

“It takes courage for families to speak up and reach out when their families are having a difficult time in the health-care system,” the minister said. “Our commitment is to making sure that all families accessing an emergency room in Manitoba are able to access the care that they need, where and when they need it.”

Asagwara and Premier Wab Kinew appealed to health-care workers Tuesday, issuing an open letter asking them to stay in their posts as the government works to rebuild the overwhelmed system.

Asagwara reaffirmed that plea Wednesday.

“I can’t say enough how much we appreciate the ongoing efforts of front-line health-care workers who are really keeping this system afloat,” the health minister said.

tyler.searle@freepress.mb.ca