A terrible fall on a bicycle turned into a real ordeal for a 22-year-old young man from the South Shore of Montreal, who went to the hospital four days in a row before finally having surgery on his elbow.
“I had never been to the emergency room, I didn’t know how long it was going to take… It’s a bit discouraging all the same”, sums up Émile Simard, who is not about to forget his experience. at Charles-Le Moyne Hospital in Longueuil.
Photo Chantal Poirier
Émile Simard and his father Stéphane
“We listen to the news. We are well aware that we should not go to the emergency room for nothing, adds his father, Stéphane Simard. But, until you’ve experienced it for real, you don’t realize that wow, it’s really a mess, but a total mess! It’s out of control. »
On his way home from work in Carignan last Thursday evening, Émile had a bad fall on his bike. Result: a huge painful bump in the right elbow. On the Info-Santé 811 line, the estimated time to speak to a nurse was 45 minutes, at 5 p.m.
The father therefore left his contact details for a return call, and “shopped” for an emergency from hospitals on the South Shore. Charles-Le Moyne was the only one with an occupancy rate below 100%, so they went there. In pain, Émile was treated to Tylenol.
The feeling of disturbing…
“They also gave him ice cream twice. But, we had the impression of disturbing, ”admits his father.
Note that 811 returned the call around 9 p.m., four hours later. After seven hours in the emergency room, the young man saw a doctor, who diagnosed him with a broken bone in his elbow.
Since it was 1 a.m., they put him in a splint and gave him an appointment at 8:45 a.m. for surgery on Friday.
“We were told to arrive 15 minutes early, no more. We thought they were waiting for us, that it was planned, ”says the father.
“Completely crowded”
However, when they arrived at the outpatient clinic, the room was “Completely crowded” with patients, he swears. After seven hours of waiting and fasting since the day before, Emile went upstairs and was prepped for surgery. Two hours later, he came back empty-handed. His operation was postponed.
“He had the needle and the end of the tubing in his arm! said his father.
Saturday morning, 7:30 a.m. Émile tried his luck again. Six hours later, he returned home again without being operated on.
“The longer I waited, the more I lost hope,” he admits.
It was finally on the third day that Émile had his surgery, in the afternoon. That morning, his father confesses that he had started looking for a private clinic.
Caution in sports
“It’s not fair that there is a lack of people [dans le réseau]it’s completely out of order,” noted Mr. Simard.
The operation went well, and Émile returned home at 9:30 p.m. on Sunday evening. For his father, this experience was rather demoralizing.
“I went jogging earlier, I was careful,” he admitted in an interview on Monday.
To this, the hospital management responded that elective surgeries should be postponed when severe trauma cases are transferred there.
“We sincerely regret the experience lived by the young man”, we write by email, adding that there is a context of “high traffic”.
5 things to know about emergencies
- The occupancy rate we hear in the media (eg 150%) refers to stretchers. When the rate is 100%, there are 20 patients lying on the 20 stretchers available.
- The Department of Health and Social Services updates traffic data daily.
- However, the traffic can be very different for the patients who remain in the waiting room, and who do not need to be lying on a stretcher. In this case, we speak of “ambulatory” clients, since they will go home after seeing a doctor.
- We cannot know in advance how long we will wait.
- Some hospitals have nevertheless put online waiting times that can be consulted (CHUQ, Côte-Nord).