{"id":8904,"date":"2019-12-13T11:42:49","date_gmt":"2019-12-13T16:42:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca\/?p=8904"},"modified":"2020-04-19T16:47:52","modified_gmt":"2020-04-19T20:47:52","slug":"why-a-toronto-woman-has-spent-2-years-in-a-hospital-bed-waiting-for-surgery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca\/index.php\/why-a-toronto-woman-has-spent-2-years-in-a-hospital-bed-waiting-for-surgery\/","title":{"rendered":"Why a Toronto woman has spent 2 years in a hospital bed waiting for surgery"},"content":{"rendered":"
(December 12, 2019)<\/p>\n
By: Lisa Xing, CBC news<\/p>\n\n
<\/div>Oula Jaber missed her daughter’s wedding and the birth of her granddaughter because she is in complex care, waiting for surgery.\u00a0(Lisa Xing\/CBC)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The hum of oxygen being pumped into Oula Jaber’s lungs is constant. One look at the long, blue tube connected to her throat and it’s clear\u00a0that’s what’s keeping her alive.<\/p>\n
For two years, Jaber has been waiting for a procedure that could potentially allow her to live without the tube and return home from her room in the complex-care ward of Trillium Health Partners hospital in Etobicoke.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n
Her daughter, Fatima Salem, has been trying to get a date for the surgery but has had no\u00a0luck, and in the time\u00a0her mother has been waiting for the operation, she’s missed Salem’s wedding\u00a0and the birth of her grandchild.<\/p>\n
“Had\u00a0it been done already, she would have been home right now,” a frustrated\u00a0Salem said.\u00a0“My mom missed out on a lot of major life events,” she added. “There are days where I go home and just cry myself to sleep.”<\/p>\n
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Family questions hospital wait times<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Jaber’s\u00a0case\u00a0is an extreme example of a problem that plagues health care\u00a0not just in Ontario but\u00a0across the country\u00a0\u2014 increasing wait times for a wide range of surgical and diagnostic procedures. Those wait times often force\u00a0patients to stay in hospital beds that are badly needed by others.<\/p>\n
Four years ago, complications from pneumonia forced Jaber to rely\u00a0on a breathing tube and rendered her unable to speak. A year later, doctors said there was hope she could live without the tube, but scar tissue had already grown around it.<\/p>\n
According to medical notes from various doctors shared with CBC News by Jaber’s family,\u00a0a surgeon was found two years ago at Toronto’s Princess Margaret Cancer Centre who could perform a procedure called\u00a0a laryngoscopy.<\/p>\n
The operation is required to remove the scar tissue before\u00a0a procedure can be done to\u00a0remove the tube.<\/p>\n
Jaber, 57, was put on a waiting list, and is still waiting.<\/p>\n
Had\u00a0it been done already, she would have been home right now.<\/span>– Fatima Salem, daughter of\u00a0 Oula Jaber<\/cite><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
“There’s no worse feeling than seeing a loved one suffer,” said Salem, who is an only child and was raised by her mother.<\/p>\n
‘No transparency whatsoever’<\/span><\/h2>\n
Salem said she called many times, only to be told the specialist at Princess Margaret was on vacation or out of the country on business. She said staff did not tell her where her mother was on the wait list.<\/p>\n
“There is no transparency\u00a0whatsoever,” said Salem.<\/p>\n
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Fatima Salem, left, is an only child and was raised by her mother. She has been trying to get a date for her mom’s surgery but has had no luck.\u00a0(Submitted)<\/em><\/p>\n
The University Health Network (UHN), under which Princess Margaret operates, told CBC News it can’t discuss patient cases but “surgeons with specific specialities can have long wait lists” and work within the “[operating room] time they have available to them.”<\/p>\n
Salem said her\u00a0efforts to speed up the process also yielded few results. She said her mother was referred to two other doctors who eventually said they were not equipped to perform the procedure.<\/p>\n
She pointed out the bill for the bed, approximately $1,700 a month, is subsidized by taxpayers.<\/p>\n
During Question Period Thursday, opposition leader Andrea Horwath\u00a0referenced CBC News’s story and asked\u00a0the health minister, “why anyone should have to live in a hospital bed year after year waiting for procedures that should be available but simply don’t arrive?”<\/p>\n
Health minister Christine Elliott said Jaber’s case was “rare and unusual” and that there are “very few surgeons who are able to perform this procedure. This was not anything to do with hallway health care.”<\/p>\n
Wait times on the increase<\/span><\/h2>\n
The Ontario government does not track wait times for laryngoscopies, stating the data it collects is based on recommendations from “clinical experts.”<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i.cbc.ca\/1.5393203.1576102694!\/fileImage\/httpImage\/image.jpg_gen\/derivatives\/16x9_780\/oula-jaber-and-fatima-salem.jpg\")
<\/div>
The hum of oxygen being pumped into Oula Jaber’s lungs is constant. One look at the long, blue tube connected to her throat and it’s clear\u00a0that’s what’s keeping her alive.<\/p>\n
For two years, Jaber has been waiting for a procedure that could potentially allow her to live without the tube and return home from her room in the complex-care ward of Trillium Health Partners hospital in Etobicoke.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Her daughter, Fatima Salem, has been trying to get a date for the surgery but has had no\u00a0luck, and in the time\u00a0her mother has been waiting for the operation, she’s missed Salem’s wedding\u00a0and the birth of her grandchild.<\/p>\n
“Had\u00a0it been done already, she would have been home right now,” a frustrated\u00a0Salem said.\u00a0“My mom missed out on a lot of major life events,” she added. “There are days where I go home and just cry myself to sleep.”<\/p>\n
Family questions hospital wait times<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Jaber’s\u00a0case\u00a0is an extreme example of a problem that plagues health care\u00a0not just in Ontario but\u00a0across the country\u00a0\u2014 increasing wait times for a wide range of surgical and diagnostic procedures. Those wait times often force\u00a0patients to stay in hospital beds that are badly needed by others.<\/p>\n
Four years ago, complications from pneumonia forced Jaber to rely\u00a0on a breathing tube and rendered her unable to speak. A year later, doctors said there was hope she could live without the tube, but scar tissue had already grown around it.<\/p>\n
According to medical notes from various doctors shared with CBC News by Jaber’s family,\u00a0a surgeon was found two years ago at Toronto’s Princess Margaret Cancer Centre who could perform a procedure called\u00a0a laryngoscopy.<\/p>\n
The operation is required to remove the scar tissue before\u00a0a procedure can be done to\u00a0remove the tube.<\/p>\n
Jaber, 57, was put on a waiting list, and is still waiting.<\/p>\n