Lillooet woman waiting for months, had five cancellations for knee surgery at Kamloops hospital
A woman in Lillooet has waited more than seven months and endured five cancellations for knee replacement surgery at Royal Inland Hospital. Donelda Shaw’s sixth surgical appointment, or attempted one, is scheduled for next week, March 28. “I’m anxious and afraid,” Shaw said. “You...
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A woman in Lillooet has waited more than seven months and endured five cancellations for knee replacement surgery at Royal Inland Hospital.
Donelda Shaw’s sixth surgical appointment, or attempted one, is scheduled for next week, March 28.
“I’m anxious and afraid,” Shaw said. “You get excited to get it done, thinking about how life will change and get so much better. It is like you’re on a high and then you crash with disappointment again.”
Shaw said she is coping with high levels of pain, loss of mobility and worsening mental health issues while she waits. Waiting and preparing for surgeries costs time and effort, and has affected her husband’s job. Chronic staffing shortages and a COVID-19 surgery backlog are factors.
READ MORE: Nurse reports understaffing incident and continued burnout at Kamloops hospital
“Before I had surgery dates I was able to get cortisone shots for pain but now I can’t get those otherwise I can’t get the surgery,” she said. “My anxiety and depression are getting increasingly more difficult to manage and one day of moving around, like going shopping, sets me back for three.”
Shaw said her first cancellation was in August, 2021, followed by one in September, two in November and one in January.
“At first I was given 17 hours of notice before a cancellation but now they try to give me as much notice as possible,” she said. “I’ve had numerous blood tests, COVID-19 tests and X-rays. My husband just retired but had to keep booking off days for my surgery dates.”
The once active hunter and camper said her knee has been bad since she was young. She has had other procedures done to reduce the knee problem in the past, but has been waiting eagerly for the full knee replacement surgery for a decade.
“I want to thank the nurses who are trying hard to help me, they are amazing,” she said. “There just isn’t enough of them and some are pretty tired out. I will be really upset if this next attempt doesn’t go through, this is really limiting my life.”
According to an open letter sent to Adrian Dix by the B.C. Orthopaedic Association on March 16, there are more than 1,200 orthopaedic surgical patients on Kelowna’s wait list along with another 900 in Kamloops, despite the B.C. government’s statement that it has caught up on almost all surgeries postponed due to COVID.
READ MORE: Thousands in Kamloops, Kelowna still waiting for postponed orthopaedic surgeries
“In Kamloops, since the beginning of the pandemic, orthopaedics has lost 1,803 hours of operating time,” the letter said. “On average an orthopaedic case takes around two hours. That is 900 patients who have lost their chance in the operating room.”
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