Do No Harm

I think that is meant to be the motto of physicians and hospitals but in our case they have done harm. It's called Hospital Failure To Thrive and it's caused by neglect.

The hospital my mother is in does not have the best of reputations but when one is transported by paramedics the choice is just not there. They took her to the nearest hospital with a free cardiac bed. After they stabilized her with drugs and because of her age (84) decided that the diagnosis would be failure to thrive.

After many battles with doctors it was decided that she would receive a pacemaker which went in a week ago. Now, after four weeks in bed my mother has no strength. She can't lift herself off a chair, she can't walk and she can't turn over in bed. The physiotherapists giver her exactly five minutes of their time daily and tell me they are short staffed. The charge nurses suggests it's the governments fault, not enough funding.

Where is all the special "health tax" money going I wonder? That's and extra tax that our Premier McGuinty instituted four years ago to help cover health costs and works out to about $800 per taxpayer per year above and beyond the already heavy tax burden in this country.

Two weeks ago as I was looking out the hospital window, I saw a huge, black limo pull up outside. Must be a dignitary come to visit someone and I wondered who in the world with money would be at this hospital, I mean if I had money, I'd be off to the United States for treatment. The person who exited the limo was our Minister of Health, George Smitherman along with two other persons and two hospital suits were falling all over themselves to greet them. That limo could have held 8 people easily yet there were only three using it! I meanwhile found out that the reason for his visit was to announce that the hospital would be receiving money for renovations. A little photo op six months before an election?

Meanwhile my mother has had one shower in four weeks and when they were actually going to give her one on Sunday there was no hot water in the whole hospital. Today, I spent two hours excercising my mother myself. By the time I was done my back and hip hurt but she was able to get up off a chair herself, walk a few steps to the bed and once lying down able to lift her legs up and down. That is a huge step forward for her and I suspect I am going to have to take charge of her recovery myself if I ever want to have her come home again. It sucks to be old in Canada, the system simply doesn't care and if you don't have an advocate your screwed big time.