Julia Marotte says she’s upset that it took her 19 hours, including waiting in emergency rooms at two hospitals in Kitchener, Ont. She — to take care of her teenage daughter Angelina, who was suffering from appendicitis.
“I think any parent can understand that feeling of wanting to do something better for your child and not being able to do it,” Malott told CBC News.
“The resources were right there, but I couldn’t access them, so I felt very backwards. I couldn’t do what I needed to do.”
Around 10pm ET on Sunday, Angelina couldn’t stop the abdominal pain that had started earlier in the day.
Angelina’s mother said she and her daughter went to the emergency room at St. Mary’s General, but it took 12 hours to receive a diagnosis confirming appendicitis.
Doctors were told there were no surgical beds available at St. Mary’s Hospital, so they sent Angelina to Grand River Hospital, where she waited more than four hours before undergoing an emergency appendectomy — the first hospital It had been 19 hours since I had set foot in the .
“How can a system that is meant to care for the people of Ontario fail to provide even a mattress, or even a room with dimmed lights, so that those who are ill or recovering from an illness can feel safe? It’s crazy for me. Please rest,” Malott said.
Lately, the region has been reporting long hospital wait times. Last month, a man waited 11 hours to be seen at Cambridge Memorial Hospital.
Health Minister: ‘This is not a new problem’
In the aftermath of the incident, Malott posted on social media platform
The post quickly went viral, with over 900,000 views and counting. In it, she described her daughter’s story.
Ontario Health Minister Sylvia Jones was asked about the matter during a press conference about an unrelated announcement Tuesday at St. Mary’s General Hospital.
Jones responded that the province has “expanded resident capacity at all medical schools in Ontario…at least 20 additional residents and an additional 50 at the largest medical schools.”
“I have to say this is not a new problem in Ontario, we had a previous government that actually cut the slots in 2019. If we had those slots now, we would have two more people. There are 300 doctors working in Ontario. ”
Marotte wasn’t entirely satisfied with Jones’ response, saying, “To a large extent, the blame for our system is being placed on the previous government, and for most Ontarians, they don’t want to hear who’s to blame for this.” I don’t think he’s interested.” ”
Please share this widely! I cannot be more afraid of the health crisis in this country.@ONThealth could do better.
Health care in Ontario is broken, and we’ve known it for a long time. This has been my whole life, and I’m never young.
This is my daughter’s IV line… pic.twitter .com/oRvmiRYGcM
Ms Jones expressed her readiness to speak to Ms Malott about the incident, which her worried mother welcomed and said she was “looking forward to”. [their] Future conversations. ”
“For us, we want to see positive change,” Marotte said. “We want to see the system improve. This is not about politics for us. This is simply about how we build a better Ontario.”
CBC News reached out to St. Mary’s General Hospital, but did not receive a response by the time of publication.
A Grand River Hospital spokeswoman said she could not comment, citing “patient privacy regulations.”