A 36-year-old man spent days in a Royal University Hospital hallway this summer, undergoing treatment for swelling of his brain, because there was no room for him to be in.
“It’s scary. It’s the scariest medical experience I’ve had, hands down,” Kay Roberts said.
Roberts had been experiencing confusion and headaches and grew increasingly disorientated, leading him to seek medical attention at the Saskatoon ER the morning of Aug. 4.
Roberts never imagined that he would receive invasive medical treatment in a busy hallway. He ended up spending four nights and five days on a stretch bed while experiencing confusion and other cognitive issues due to his condition.
“I really only have memories from one of those days. The lights were on all the time, very difficult to sleep, people walking by all the time ,” Roberts said.
He had medical procedures done in hallway, including a plasma replacement that required a tube being placed in his jugular vein. According to his family, the technician was “visibly concerned” about doing this procedure, which takes approximately three to four hours, in that space.
“Boxes full of plasma were sitting on the floor and had to be moved so other people could get by,” the family wrote in an account of events for the Saskatchewan NDP to release, which the Opposition party did Friday morning.
“This treatment was critical in his recovery of encephalitis and needed to be performed urgently to prevent and recover from neurological issues.”
Prior to receiving medical attention, Roberts’ family said they spent nine hours in the ER waiting room. His cognition was declining and he could not remember his parents’ names.
The family flagged down a nurse and staff were able to take a CT scan before returning to the waiting room. Roberts was sent back and forth throughout the day, according to the family’s account.
When a neurologist returned to Roberts, she struggled to find a private area to share the results from the exam.
“This visibly distressed her, as she was uncomfortable sharing these results in a hallway,” the Roberts family wrote.
All in all, Roberts spent 10 days in the ER and in “makeshift overflow areas” before he was moved to the neurology ward.
Roberts said he is extremely grateful for the medical care he received from the doctors and nurses.
“But it’s not really lost on me that that’s a really tough situation to practise medicine in. In a hallway. And I could just see the frustration.”
His mother Maureen Roberts said it was a very stressful situation for her son, their family and the medical staff.
“As far as the nurses … I don’t know how. They are so amazing, honestly, in that environment. The medical care was amazing. The situation, how it was performed, was terrible,” she said.
At a news conference Friday morning in Saskatoon, NDP health critic Keith Jorgenson said getting cared for in a hallway is absolutely unacceptable.
“I have to admit I was shocked when I read this story. I was really shocked we have got to the point where these complicated medical procedures are being performed in a hallway,” Jorgenson said.
Jorgenson said the family deserves an apology. He also wants Health Minister Jeremy Cockrill to tour the emergency department at RUH to see the situation firsthand.
In a statement to CBC, the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) said it would “welcome the opportunity to meet with this patient to better understand and learn from their experience.”
The health authority said it continues to take “immediate action to address these capacity pressures by improving flow through Saskatoon hospitals, including enhancements to improve emergency room wait times.”
It further stated that SHA leaders are connecting daily with teams, including emergency departments as they manage capacity pressures, in addition to the “ongoing efforts” to add acute care capacity in Saskatoon.
This would include the expansion of 109 acute care inpatient beds at Saskatoon City Hospital over the coming year.
