Double amputee released from B.C. hospital with no housing

A B.C. double amputee is trying to figure out what to do next, after he says he was forced out of a North Vancouver hospital with nowhere to live.

Kevin Grant says he was told he must leave Lions Gate Hospital by Thursday morning. Hospital staff, he claims, told him it wasn’t their job to find him housing and suggested a nearby homeless shelter.

“What they found me is, ‘OK, you can sleep here from 9 p.m. to 11 a.m. but you gotta get out and you’re on your own.’ Does that sound like housing?” he said.

Grant, a self-employed carpenter, found himself at the centre of a medical nightmare after developing a blister on his foot that got infected.

He said he’s always had blood problems, and the infection worsened to the point where doctors were forced to amputate part of his right foot.

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Then he had a bad reaction to antibiotics, and his left foot became infected. Doctors ended up having to amputate that leg above his knee.

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After treatment at VGH and consulting with GF strong about a prosthetic, he was transferred to Lions Gate Hospital in North Vancouver.

“I was told I was being sent to Lions Gate for rehab. That it would be for at least two months to get my prosthetic fit and regain my strength so I could get back out into the world,” he said.

“I get to Lions Gate and they go, no, we don’t do rehab.”

A month after moving to Lions Gate, Grant was wheeling out with no place to call home. His former apartment, he said, is not wheelchair accessible.

In a statement, Vancouver Coastal Health said it cannot discuss individual cases, but that it works “collaboratively with patients and families to establish safe and appropriate discharge plans.”

“Any allegations of insufficient care are investigated,” it added.

For the time being, Grant will be staying with his brother — who also lives in wheelchair inaccessible housing, and will have to carry him up the stairs into his home.

“It’s been 18 months, nine surgeries. It’s been a hell of a road,” he said.

“I still got lots to give. I’m ready to work I just need the tools to do it, and a leg is number one.”