KELOWNA — Lauren Philip, 51, says the health care system let her down — that she was lied to.
Her ordeal began last week at 100 Mile House General. Doctors there sent her by ambulance to Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops to be treated for a lung infection.
“Kamloops re-assured me that I would be brought back to Kamloops when Kelowna is finished with me,” says Philip.
With tubes still in her lung, Philip got a visit from a doctor.
“The doctor comes and sees me Saturday morning, reassuring me this tube is coming out, I was under the assumption it would be either Saturday or Sunday. It didn’t come out until this morning. And he says: ‘It’s not my priority to get you home. My priority is to make you better when you get here’.”
A care taker finally got in touch with Philip Monday with a list of options to get her back home — wearing used clothes (I don’t get this?) — only hours after the tubes are taken out of her lungs.
“The list of options was prices of bus tickets from here to Kamloops or from here to 100 Mile House of which one had a five hour layover in Kamloops.”
Feeling weak from the surgery and stressed, Philip sought comfort from a nurse.
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“She said she was disgusted with who she works for because this happens. So I asked her for name and I thanked her because she cared. She had a tear with me at the edge of the bed.”
“Lying to me at Kamloops saying I was going to get a ride back to 100 Mile. At Kamloops saying I was going to be getting a ride back to Kamloops. Here (Kelowna), not prepping me properly and making me stress on how I’m going to get to either Kamloops or 100 Mile until a matter of a few hours before I’m ready to go.”
Kelowna General says Philip had plenty of warning that she was being discharged.
“In reviewing her chart, she was actually informed late last week that should would most likely be discharged on Sunday or Monday and that discharge arrangements and transport would need to be arranged,” says Sharon Cook, head of health services at KGH.
And as for why she would show up at Kelowna General without her clothes. Cook says that is not the norm.
“Certainly belongings should be transported with patients. Sometimes things happen clothing can be forgotten.”
Cook says she’s looking into what was said to Philip at the other hospitals.
Meantime, Philip offers this advice in case your in need of medical care.
“Everybody that has to take an ambulance from hospital to hospital be warned. You’re going to have to find your own way home or don’t go because you’re not going to get help when you’re at the new hospital.”
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