Woman wonders if painful wait for facial abscess removal stemmed from Manitoba doctor shortage

WARNING: The following story includes images and description of a medical condition.

A Winnipeg woman whose golf-ball sized facial abscess burst while waiting for help during an emergency room visit questions whether Manitoba's doctor shortage played a role in her struggle to access timely care.

On Oct. 24, worsening pain from a abscess that "looked like a balloon" drove Rhonda Powers to seek care at an ER for the third time. Twelve hours into waiting, the growth popped and she was then seen by an expert — something she was previously told would take seven weeks.

"I don't think I could've stood it any longer," said Powers, 63.

"I'm not a vain woman, but people could see what was wrong or see my face getting bigger and redder, and the pain ... it felt as if my face was on fire."

Powers said she filed two formal complaints with the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority about a week after the abscess burst.

Now healing, Powers questions whether the months she waited to see a specialist, and the hours-long waits in Winnipeg ERs, are symptoms of a broader doctor shortage in Manitoba.

Canadian Institute for Health Information data released this week suggests Manitoba has 215 doctors per 100,00 residents — the second lowest rate in the country and far below the national average of 247.

Doctors Manitoba president Michael Boroditsky lamented the shortage at the time, saying his "biggest concern" is the possibility that patients who need care aren't getting it in a timely manner.

Powers said her abscess needed care sooner, and she waited unnecessarily long.

"I was in so much pain all I wanted to do was just lie down," Powers told Information Radio host Marcy Markusa on Thursday.

"I was depressed, I still am depressed."

Powers first went to the Grace Hospital emergency room on Aug. 22, and she said her family doctor had notified hospital staff of her condition.

She received a CT scan there showing she had a blocked salivary gland. Powers said a doctor wanted to remove it at that time.

But the on-call specialist disagreed, said Powers. Instead, she was given Tylenol 3 and antibiotics and sent home.

Not long after that visit, she received a letter from the specialist with an appointment date for late October — around seven weeks away.

She was soon taking half a dozen Tylenol 3s daily for pain. Her family doctor was growing more concerned, said Powers.

"All I could do was wait and when it got bad I would call [the specialist's] office and ... voicemail just told me to go to the ER."

'It was dreadful': Powers

Powers went back to the Grace Hospital ER again where a staff member prescribed her more Tylenol 3s and antibiotics and sent her home.

"It was dreadful, I couldn't do anything," she said. "It was turning into a nightmare."

Powers was just days away from the specialist's appointment date when the pain became too much to bear.

On Oct. 24, she attended St. Boniface Hospital emergency room — her third ER visit for the abscess since late August.

As she waited, the bulging growth "broke through my face," said Powers. A doctor at the hospital told her to cancel her coming appointment with the specialist and told her "we're going to take care of you from now on," she said.

The doctor pushed out fluid and out popped a popcorn kernel-sized stone-like object. Powers took it home in a pill bottle.

This week, she filed one complaint with the WRHA addressed to the specialist she was initially assigned to see, and another directed at a staff member there. 

In an email statement, a WRHA spokesperson said they "cannot comment on an individual patient situation due to privacy concerns," and added that patients who experience issues should reach out to patient relations.

Powers lauded the care she received from her family doctor and others at the emergency rooms she attended.

Stay 'optimistic': Health minister

She is optimistic the NDP will make good on campaign promises to fix the health-care system, but Powers acknowledges the newly-minted government ministers have their work cut out for them.

"I would ask her and for others to hold on to that optimism," said Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara. 

"She had an experience that was unfortunately negative for her in many ways, and yet she still has the courage and capacity to share her experience in the hope that it will improve health care for other people. That is a very Manitoban thing to do."

Asagwara commended Powers for availing herself of the complaints system and other processes available to patients.

"Oftentimes the ways in which we improve the system and address issues in the system is after we've heard from people who have had inappropriate or unacceptable experiences," they said.

"This power of speaking up provides an opportunity for health-care providers to take a look at what happened and see where things can be improved, so that in the future if anyone else presents with a similar situation, that they get the kind of care that they expect."