Family devastated by mother's stroke, appalled by medical care
CBC News | Posted: July 21, 2015 11:00 AM | Last Updated: July 21, 2015
'They came in and gave her two baby aspirin that's all the treatment she received.'
A South African family has been thoroughly disappointed by their experience in the Canadian health-care system and they want answers after their mother has been left partially paralyzed following a stroke.
"I am a Winnipeg resident and my parents can't visit me from South Africa, they get treated like dogs," said Jonathan Bouwer, whose mother was taken to hospital in Kenora, Ont. Thursday after suffering a stroke.
Thursday morning, Bouwer woke up to hear his father crying for help. His mother lay on the floor, unable to move the left side of her body. They called 911 right away but there was no water ambulance that could retrieve them from the island they were on in Lake of the Woods.
So Bouwer brought his mother, Elma Bouwer, to Lake of the Woods District Hospital in the small fishing boat he'd rented for their vacation.
When they arrived, Elma did not receive the "clot busting" medication typically used for stroke patients to minimize the damage caused by the clot. The Bouwer family said they were advised that it would be best to transfer their mother to a larger care centre for further treatment.
No room in Winnipeg
Being from Winnipeg, Bouwer wanted to see his mother transferred to Winnipeg's Health Sciences Centre (HSC).
"HSC does not want to accept her, they do not have the available beds to accept her. Whereas we were frantic, how could the biggest hospital in Winnipeg not accept a patient who needs emergency care?" Bouwer said to CBC.
"They (staff in Kenora) came in and gave her two baby aspirin that's all the treatment she received."
It is not typical practice for Ontario acute stroke care patients to be accepted to Winnipeg hospitals, a spokesperson for the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority said in an email to CBC News. They would typically remain in province and be sent to Thunder Bay.
We were just sitting there like a piece of meat on the side of the hallway.- Jonathan Bouwer
The Bouwers confirmed that they were advised Elma could be transported to Thunder Bay but they were concerned they wouldn't be able to offer her support from that distance.
Elma arrived at the Kenora hospital around 8 a.m. her son estimates, after waiting several hours, HSC had a bed open up and they agreed to accept her as a patient.
Storm reduces transport options
By Bouwer's recollection, they waited for about five hours for the medical air transport to arrive for his mother. Around 7 p.m. he was informed they were not coming.
Ornge, Ontario's medical air-transport service, would not comment on a specific case citing privacy concerns. They could confirm that their services were requested at 3 p.m. for a transfer from Lake of the Woods District Hospital to Winnipeg.
Thunderstorm activity delayed the Ornge aircraft and at 7 p.m. they were told their services were no longer required as the patient had been taken by ground ambulance.
By Bouwer's watch it was 9:20 p.m. when Elma arrived at HSC by ground ambulance, more than 12 hours after she was originally admitted to the Kenora hospital, at which point they waited in a hallway in the emergency department.
"We were just sitting there like a piece of meat on the side of the hallway," Bouwer said.
When Elma did see a neurologist, Bouwer was told the treatment window had closed and there was little the doctors at the Health Sciences Centre could do for his mother.
Protocols in question
Bouwer believes his mother did not receive adequate health care and that her her life will be affected from this point on because of it.
"I have been a dentist in South Africa for seven years, I know our health system, it's a third world country. We are in a first world country and the Canadian health system has failed us and it's appalling," he told CBC.
The Lake of the Woods District Hospital is "reviewing the incident."
Documents outlining Lake of the Woods District Hospital protocols for administering the "clot busting" medication, or tissue plasminogen activator (TPA), say that the medication is only administered to a patient if it has been less than 4.5 hours since the patient was seen to be normal.
Other protocols for treating stroke patients include a CT scan and moving the stabilized patient to a stroke unit within 24 hours. Both of which were done in Elma Bouwer's case.