‘Speak up, make some noise’

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This article was published 17/12/2023 (676 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A successful knee replacement eliminated one source of pain for Karen Bennett, but her uncertain wait for surgery is not over.

The 77-year-old Ste. Anne resident had knee-replacement surgery in Winnipeg recently, but is in her 10th year of chronic back pain waiting to see a surgeon for spinal stenosis.

“Can they do surgery on it and fix it?” Bennett said. “I need to know, and then you have something to base the rest of your life on. Am I going to be … in a wheelchair by the time I’m 78, or am I going to have surgery and be able to walk and enjoy my last few years, whatever God’s given me?”

“Now I’m just dealing with the back pain. And the mental anguish,” she added. “You have good days and you have bad days; today is a good day, but I have days where I could sit and cry, and I have. It’s emotionally draining some days.”

It’s been nearly three months since she had her second knee replacement at Grace Hospital. Because of her other chronic health conditions, Bennett didn’t qualify for out-of-province surgery via the diagnostic and surgical recovery task force.

Under direction of the newly elected NDP government, the task force is winding down operations and is set to be decommissioned by the end of December. But patients who were already booked for out-of-province surgeries will continue to go across the border for care well into next spring.

More than 80 patients are still hoping to head to Fargo, northwestern Ontario or Vancouver for surgery or diagnostics in 2024.

Bennett said she was glad to stay close to home and would like to see more health-care dollars spent on expanding surgical capacity within Manitoba. Her knee-replacement date was scheduled only after Bennett spoke publicly about the long and painful wait she endured.

Apart from a post-surgical infection that set her recovery back a couple of weeks, everything went well. Although her knee pain is gone, she continues to use a cane or walker to get around because of her back issues. She doesn’t know when she’ll finally be able to consult with a surgeon about the problem; last year she was told she could expect to wait another two years — minimum — to get in.

Bennett is still surprised she was able to get the knee replaced to quickly after speaking out publicly in August about the interminable wait. In an effort to advocate for herself and “make some noise,” she reached out to the health minister, other politicians and news media — “anyone I could think of.”

When she was being prepped to go to the operating room on the day of her surgery, she found out at least one OR staff member was familiar with her story.

“One nurse said, ‘Karen Bennett. Oh! Are you the one that was in the paper?’ I said yes, I am. So, my name was out there,” she said.

Bennett said Grace Hospital staff were “fantastic” during her stay, but said it was clear to her they need more support.

“You could see to look at them that they were overwhelmed.”

She is not the only Manitoban who spoke out publicly in hopes of getting quicker access to surgery.

After waiting longer than expected with poor communication about fluctuating wait times, Winnipegger Mark Havens had his hip replacement done at a local facility on Nov. 6 and is recovering well.

He expressed gratitude for the surgery, for medical staff and for his ability to speak out in news coverage about the uncertain wait he experienced.

“I had no intention of being a squeaky wheel in order to get moved ahead. What I wanted was honest answers to questions about the process and the status of the backlog. What I got was a fast surgery date,” he wrote in an email, adding he wishes there was more transparency in the “medical bureaucracy.”

He said he feels as though he got his life back and can now look forward to cycling, camping and playing disc golf again.

To others out there who are waiting for surgery, and to the government in power, Bennett urges action.

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“Speak up, make some noise, let’s get our government working,” she said. “Let’s get going. There’s too many of us that are suffering.”

The last scheduled out-of-province procedure through the decommissioned surgical task force is expected to happen before the end of March, a spokesperson for Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara said. There are 79 patients who were already scheduled for out-of-province surgery under the task force before the Nov. 1 deadline set by the provincial government to stop task force operations.

“An additional eight patients are in the process of having eligibility confirmed. These patient referrals were received prior to the November 1, 2023 deadline but are awaiting test results that will inform their eligibility and appropriateness for an out-of-province procedure,” the health minister’s office stated.

“Our government is committed to ensuring that all patients will receive the care they need,” the spokesperson stated.

katie.may@freepress.mb.ca

Katie May
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Katie May is a multimedia producer for the Free Press.

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