Woman relieved after hopeful turn in 89-year-old father’s six-day ER hallway odyssey By: Carol Sanders Posted: 7:12 PM CST Tuesday, Nov. 14, 2023 Last Modified: 7:26 PM CST Tuesday, Nov. 14, 2023 Updates

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Barney Charach had been languishing on a stretcher in a hallway at Grace Hospital for nearly a week, and the despondent 89-year-old told his daughter he “just wants to die.”

Gayle Charach said when she visited her dad Tuesday — six days after he arrived by ambulance in the emergency department — he was crying and apologizing.

The ER hallways are packed with mostly elderly patients on stretchers and in recliners — and Gayle said nobody had any answers as to when her father might get a bed somewhere. She said she voted “to fix health care” and wanted to know when and how the NDP government would make good on its main campaign promise.

“It’s mind boggling to me that you leave an 89-year-old in a hallway for six days and counting,” she said. “There are a whole bunch of low-acuity patients waiting for beds, and we’ve been told he will be transferred to a hospital. We have no idea which one, nor do we have control over which one when a bed (becomes available).”

At least that was the case before the Free Press made some inquiries.

The Winnipeg Regional Health Authority declined to comment on the situation at the Grace, where the posted wait time to be seen in the ER was 10.5 hours Tuesday, the longest queue in the city.

But Tuesday evening Gayle reported that her father had seen a social worker, followed by an occupational therapist and a physiotherapist.

“We are working on a plan to get Dad home to recover with the right equipment and staffing to avoid risks of falling,” the relieved 62-year-old told the newspaper in an email.

“It’s mind boggling to me that you leave an 89 year old in a hallway for six days and counting.”–Gayle Charach

Her widowed father, a former president of the Folk Arts Council of Winnipeg and unabashed city booster, was living independently, able to scoot “Fred Flintsone-style” around his Shaftesbury Park Retirement Residence suite in a wheelchair until last Thursday, when his legs suddenly stopped functioning and he was unable to transfer himself from the chair to his bed or the bathroom. Gayle, 62, called an ambulance.

He was taken to the Grace, where he waited seven hours in a hospital wheelchair before being transferred onto a stretcher in the hallway, where he has remained since. It was 31 hours before he was examined by a doctor, Gayle said.

Her father had undergone some diagnostic tests, received supplemental oxygen and, prior to Tuesday afternoon, had been seen once by a physiotherapist, but his condition was deteriorating, she said.

Manitoba Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara and federal counterpart Mark Holland — who is in the city for meetings Wednesday — weighed in on the situation.

“These are conditions that were largely ignored by the previous (Tory) government and, unfortunately. Manitoba families continue to deal with the consequences…. It is going to take us years to move this health-care system in the right direction,” Asagwara told the Free Press, adding work is being done “around the clock” with system leaders to repair the damage.

“I know that for a lot of people it seems unfair to ask for their patience, but I want to make sure that we’re being very realistic with Manitobans and being honest about the fact that it is going to take time. Our approach right now is on taking necessary steps to retain the health-care workers we have who are truly doing their best to keep it afloat…. (They’re) very motivated despite being exhausted.”

Holland said he and Asagwara will discuss Manitoba’s top health priorities and “how we can apply federal funding to be of assistance in these matters.”

“There is specific money there for provinces to address the unique challenges within their jurisdictions,” he said, adding shared data and systems among provinces is also important.

“A lot of times these challenges come down to poor sharing of information and I think we have to be looking further upstream at the decisions we’re making in preventative health to stop people getting sick in the first place.”

Asagwara welcomed input from Manitobans willing to speak up, such as Gayle Charach.

“It allows for us to get a better understanding of what people are experiencing on the front lines,” the Union Station MLA said. “It takes courage for people to share their painful experiences in health care and often they do it with the hope that changes are made for the betterment of the next patient… that’s a very Manitoban thing — this desire to be part of a solution that makes things better for the collective community.”

— with files from Danielle Da Silva

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca