This text is a translation of an article by Michelle Gerwing from CTV News.
David Gaboury told CTV News that he had his prostatectomy, a procedure in which the prostate is partially or completely removed, on Friday, Dec. 16, 2022, only to have it canceled at the very last second. He said that to say he was disappointed is an understatement.
“Emotionally I’m drained by this, there’s no other way to describe it,” Mr Gaboury said.
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Mr. Gaboury was diagnosed with prostate cancer six months ago. He said the cancer was caught early, but his doctor told him he would need surgery to treat it. In October, he was given the date for his surgery of December 16 and Mr Gaboury had been preparing for the day ever since.
Long wait
He said he went to Grace Hospital for the procedure a few hours before the scheduled start time, preparations began, and was told he would be given an IV.
“I waited and waited for the IV to come and three hours later they came back to me and said, ‘Well, you’re not going to get the IV because your surgery was canceled for lack of beds'” , explained Mr. Gaboury.
Mr Gaboury said he was shocked to learn there was no bed reserved for him as his operation was not elective and was scheduled months in advance.
“There are bound to be things that can’t be scheduled, but there just doesn’t seem to be the capacity to meet that requirement and still do their regularly scheduled surgeries,” he said.
Worrying
A spokesperson for Shared Health told CTV News it can understand that any postponement of surgery is of concern to patients and their families, especially those suffering from cancer.
“This is why cancer surgeries continue to be a priority for Manitoba’s surgical program, as they have been throughout the pandemic,” reads the written response.
The spokesperson also said postponements of cancer surgeries are extremely rare, with three having taken place at Grace Hospital in the past seven months. They explained that this sometimes happens for a variety of reasons, such as the availability of staff and beds, the physical condition of patients and an unexpected increase in emergency surgeries – the last of which took place last Friday at Grace.
“There were more than 10 emergency patient admissions for surgery at the hospital on Friday. As a result, all but one of the elective procedures were postponed that day to maintain the hospital’s inpatient capacity, with surgeons at Grace focusing on emergency patients and people with urgent cancer cases.” , the statement said.
Generally, a postponement of a cancer case would only occur following consultation with the patient’s surgeon and the site manager for the surgery and both should agree that postponing the surgery would not result in any medical outcome for the patient long-term negative. Any delayed cancer surgery would normally be urgently rescheduled in consultation with the patient’s surgeon.
Mr Gaboury keeps his unused hospital bag packed even though he does not know when his operation will be postponed.
Her worry is that the cancer may spread before that day comes.
“I think it needs to be addressed not just for me but in general,” he said. “How many more are going to be canceled and what will be the effect on people’s health?”
