A 74-year-old Burnaby man is recovering after what his family called “Third World” treatment at Burnaby Hospital last week.
Barry Douglas, a retired glass installer, was admitted to the emergency department with intense abdominal pain at about 8 a.m. on Friday.
“He was in acute pain,” his son-in-law Tony Morris told the NOW. “He couldn’t move; he couldn’t do anything, and he’s a real tough guy, so he knew something was up.”
Things started off well, according to Morris
“The first 20 minutes in that hospital was the most amazing experience in an emergency I’ve ever had,” he said. “They were brilliant. They had all tests that they could have done within 20 minutes.”
Ordeal
But everything went downhill from there.
A doctor told the family he suspected a ruptured appendix but a CT scan was needed to confirm.
At 10 p.m., however, the family was told the CT scanner was down and likely wouldn’t be working until noon.
Eleven hours later, the scanner still wasn’t working, and hospital officials finally loaded Douglas and two other patients, all still in hospital gowns, into a taxi and sent them to Royal Columbia Hospital with a nurse, according to Morris.
“I was shocked and stunned. I still am,” Morris said.
His father-in-law was embarrassed, cold and in a lot of pain, he said.
After a CT scan at RCH at 11 p.m., however, Douglas was shipped back to Burnaby.
The scan results confirmed his appendix had ruptured and he was in need of emergency surgery.
At 3 a.m., 19 hours after being admitted, Douglas went into the operation.
“He was really badly infected. The surgery should have been done hours before,” Morris said.
Because of the delay, Douglas had to spend extra days in hospital, according to the family.
“He’s been on antibiotics for the last two days,” Morris said.
Douglas’s family is “extremely disappointed” in the hospital, according to his son-in-law.
“I get that things break down, but your process has to be 100 per cent better,” Morris said.
'Right option'
Burnaby Hospital has one CT scanner that’s been operating since 2008, according to Fraser Health spokesperson Dixon Tam.
He said the machine went down on Oct. 26 because of a software issue.
It’s the third time over the past year that the scanner has been down for a day or longer for “unscheduled repair and maintenance,” according to Tam.
“In a case where the CT scanner is not available, Burnaby Hospital implements procedures to ensure that the patient is provided access to Royal Columbian Hospital to get their scan done,” he said.
Patients are occasionally transferred by taxi, Tam said, but only after consultation with the medical team and only if the patient agrees and is stable.
“This occurs after ambulances and non-emergency patient transfer services are considered and a taxi is deemed the right option,” Tam said.
Morris, however, doesn’t think a taxi was the “right option” for his father-in-law.
“It’s the most mind-boggling thing,” he said.
Fraser Health, meanwhile, has gotten in touch with the family, according to Tam.
“We appreciate the concerns of this patient and their family,” he said, “and we’ve reached out to them to discuss the care that was provided.”
