Tough Call
I am feeling a tad guilty about this. But I had to think about it.
I had brought your attention to the poor woman who lost her full term child at Burnaby General. Her name is Dawn. I am still hoping to connect with her.
I had contacted the MLA who is helping her and asked him to pass on my condolences. I had also told him a bit about what had happened to me. He asked first if he could speak to me via telephone and then meet with him in person. I did so on Friday. I can see why he won his riding. Raj Chouhan, MLA is one of the kindest men I have ever met. And a gentleman to boot.
He appears to be genuinely aghast at Ms Hicks and my own treatment at Burnaby General. Not that the hospital had anything to do with the death of my son. He was upset to hear about the ‘casual’ treatment from the nurses that I received…to the point that no nurse was present when my son was finally delivered.
He was not impressed with my various experiences with their ER and so on. Neither am I, but I feel that many have probably worse and far better stories than I.
Nor did I want my tale to make this all into a witch hunt focused on Burnaby alone. I think all the lower mainland hospitals are suffering.
Anyway.
He wanted to contact the media to hear my story. And I balked.
For a few reasons.
One being like I said…the hospital did not cause the death of my son.
Second…I don’t feel I have a ‘bad’ enough story to share.
Third….I don’t really feel comfortable with bringing my family into such a spotlight. I don’t need the fame.
and fourth…I began to worry about how this could jeopardize any future treatment for myself and my family.
However. I do think that women should be speaking out and sharing their experiences with the various hospitals across Canada.
I think that while the Liberal government pushes the ‘privatization’ of healthcare, we need to be demanding improvements in the PUBLIC care that we have. This can turn into better care for those that can afford it. Or better care for those that live in the right place.
Mr. Chouhan feels the same way. He feels that more stories need to come out regarding their experiences with pre and postnatal care.
So I turned down my chance to speak out, but I would ask that others out there don’t. Or at least share their stories and experiences through sites like this.
We need to speak out about how our healthcare is failing us. We need to fight to make it better.
We need to be heard when we KNOW something is wrong.
Tags: Mom Talk
2.19.08 at 11:28 am
SmalltownRN comments:
Crunchy…..I have mentioned to you before that I was a nurse at Burnaby Hospital for 14 years. I saw many changes happend there….I went to many Burnaby Council meetings and met with the local MLA to voice concerns we had with the way the Health Authority wanted to change things. We wrote letters, we held rallies….nothing changed….they amalgamated our ICU and CCU they cut beds….they closed the extended care facility there, they laid off housekeepers and hired companies on contract that now you have to call a number in Surrey to get a housekeeper in Burnaby to clean up a mess made by a patient. They contracted out food services…if you have certain dietary concerns they might not be met….snacks are a thing of the past…we were lucky if we could keep some milk and bread in the fridge for the patients…and never mind nurse patient ratios…there is no such thing…after 1500 hrs when the housekeeper and unit clerks go home that is another duty that is added to the already busy RN. There are things that I have never understood with healthcare….if we are going to run hospitals on a 24/7 basis then all services should be made available…I mean we didn’t even have a pharmacist on sight after 2000hrs…there was one on call but they didn’t like us having to call them in…rather the RN’s in ICU became the pharmacists on nights…other wards would send their requests for medications and the RN’s in ICU would have to go to the night cupboard where medications were kept and dispense them…to me that is just wrong….it minimalizes the responsibility and the roles of the pharmacist and places an increase stress on me…especially if it is a drug which I am not familiar with.
Oh do I have stories….yes those I have just shared are from my RN perspective…but I have been a patient as well…and have experienced first hand the effects this governments cut backs have had on my life.
I truly am of the opinion that it is this governments mandate to privatize as much of health care as possible….hence the opening of so many private clinics….
Oh I could go on about the inadequacies of funding to the health authority….and the foolish spending of health care dollars….
I could talk about the decrepancies of funding from the urban centers to the rural areas and the health impact that has on smaller communities.
I am so sorry for you loss Crunchy…and I hope that you do get some resolve and find peace…