Letter: Where would we be without our health-care professionals?
By Letter to the Editor on September 22, 2021.
Dear editor, In these times, our frontline health workers are being sworn at, spit at and scorned for trying to do their job. The job of trying to keep us safe and healthy. I thought your readers might enjoy a personal experience that I recently had. On Sept. 12 at around 4 p.m. I was experiencing severe abdominal pains and after much trepidation, I decided to go to Medicine Hat Regional Hospital Emergency department. From the moment I arrived at MHRH , I was treated with the utmost kindness and courtesy. I was examined – blood work, x-ray, cat scan all within a very short period of time. It was determined that I had a bowel obstruction, and at 12 a.m., Dr. Tessier and her wonderful team performed emergency surgery. I woke up on 5 West to the amazing nursing staff who monitored me for the next five days. On Friday, I was discharged and am back home. I cannot give too much praise to the staff at MHRH in general and the 5 West nursing staff in particular. They exhibit a level of professionalism and caring that is truly commendable. The next time you hear someone criticizing our angels of mercy, ask the question: Where would we be without our heath-care professionals? Tim Tompkins Medicine Hat 14-13
Albertans have made the worse mistake of their lives.
Over a three year period I was in hospital 8 times. I had two bowel operations and two kidney operations. Six of those times I was in hospital for a week each time and it was mainly because of the massive infections I had. I couldn’t have been treated any better. The health care workers were fantastic and now Albertans have told them they don’t give a damn about them and tried to elect another one of the worse enemies they have had over the years starting with Ralph Klein. Reformers, pretending they are conservatives treating our doctors and nurse like garbage.
For years retired doctor friends have been telling us at coffee that Alberta governments need to wake up and realize that Canadian trained doctors and nurses are some of the most highly respected in the world and they can work anywhere they please.
During the Klein years I helped nine doctors and at least two dozen nurses relocate out of the province. One of the doctors said to me
“Why Should I Stay In Alberta and Support My Patients When My Patients Won’t Support Me Against This Tyrant Ralph Klein”
Thirteen percent of nurses in the Edmonton area say they are leaving because of the way they have been treated by Reformer Jason Kenney and you have just tried to elect his Reform Party pal Erin O’Toole who has nothing but praise for what Kenney has done to our doctors and nurses.
You can bet doctors will follow the nurses, like they did when Klein was kicking them around and a lot of my fellow seniors could fine themselves in serious trouble, without a doctor. I doubt the delayed operations will get done and Kenney is already talking about having to send patients to other province, because of the horrific mess he has created. Good luck survive this pandemic without any doctors or nurse.
Tim and I have enjoyed the same wonderful health care experiences.However I knew two seniors who died in the back of ambulances waiting outside an Edmonton hospital during the Klein years, thanks to the huge shortage of beds, doctors and nurses Klein had created. One of their widows told us that there were 11 ambulances in line ahead of his because there was no place to put him. Doctors told her that if they could have gotten to him sooner they would have saved him.
Another senior I knew came within 15 minutes of dying all because of what Klein had done. His wife had gotten him into the Sturgeon Hospital hospital in St. Albert on a Sunday but was told they weren’t allowed to do any surgeries at that hospital and they had to get him into the Royal Alex in Edmonton. They couldn’t get him a bed until the following Thursday so Tim and I know what he must have gone through. On Thursday morning a doctor asked him if he could hold on a bit longer because they had five emergencies they had to deal with. He said he could.
However a few minutes later his wife and his friend came to see him and they found him choking to death with blood pouring out of his mouth. His wife , a retired nurse, ran to an emergency room an interrupted an operation and two doctors were able to save him. He was in and out of hospital for another year because the infections that keep re-occurring . These are all cases of blocked bowel problems.
Retired doctor friends have pointed out that bowel blockages and ruptured appendix’s were major cases of deaths thanks to Klein. There weren’t enough doctors, nurses or beds to deal with it properly and it’s going to be no different under Kenney. Yet Albertans have told doctors and nurses they don’t care.