Prince Rupert woman blames crumbling system for husband’s head injury

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The wife of a Prince Rupert man who had a serious fall shortly after being released from hospital says he should not have been sent home.

And Tish Losier fears the cut to his head and concussion are a warning of a worsening health care situation in this northern port city.

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Losier woke up March 19 to her husband, Joe Budnisky, who has epilepsy, having a seizure.

She called for an ambulance, which arrived quickly. But it arrived at the Prince Rupert Regional Hospital at 6:30 a.m., the emergency room was closed, only opening at 8 a.m. before closing again at 3 p.m. that day.

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The emergency room in Prince Rupert has been closed six times since March 8 due to a physician shortage, causing increasing concern and frustration for residents, even as there is word of several doctors planning to leave the area soon.

Northern Health says it is aware of several planned departures and said three new doctors are arriving before year-end.

Prince Rupert Mayor Herb Pond called the recruitment of new physicians to the city “mission critical.”

Losier said her husband had several more seizures in the ambulance before the emergency room opened.

At that point, she said, the hospital was already overwhelmed.

“They just said, ‘we don’t have the beds or the staff and you have to take him home.’ I knew it wasn’t right. … He never should have been released.”

Losier said when her husband has seizures he is usually kept in hospital for an extended period, but was only tended to briefly this time.

As soon as he got home, another seizure caused him to fall.

“We’re walking between the car and the house and he had another seizure mid-walk and fell directly into a cement block, knocked his front tooth out and split his head wide open,” she said.

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“I could see his skull, like it was right down to the bone and he was bleeding everywhere, it was awful.”

When she called for an ambulance again, there were none available.

Losier called on her neighbours for help.

“I got a friend and two of my neighbours and we got him into the back of the neighbour’s car and we got him back to the ER,” she said.

He was treated and released, but the couple had to return a third time after Budnisky began vomiting blood, which Losier said was related to the concussion.

“From literally the moment I opened my eyes and saw him having a seizure in bed, the entire day was a nightmare,” Losier said. “It was traumatizing, I don’t know if there’s another word for it.”

Losier said she regrets not taking her husband to the hospital in Terrace, 116 kilometres or two hours away by a highway that can be icy in winter.

“I don’t think they would have released him that quickly from Terrace. I think they would have maybe taken a better look,” she said.

Also, Losier and Budnisky were notified last week they will also be losing their family physician.

Another Prince Rupert resident, Rosa Robichaud, is concerned that she and her husband, who both have serious health conditions, will have to leave the North Coast for better access to health care after her family physician notified them that he would be leaving the area on June 1.

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“We don’t want to leave the community, but if we don’t have doctors, I don’t see that we have a choice, especially with my husband,” said Robichaud, 61.

Dan D’Eon, who had a heart attack two years ago, has also been advised his family doctor is leaving Prince Rupert.

After a heart attack two years ago, D’Eon is worried that the departure of his physician and others will result in more emergency room closures.

He says he’s heard eight doctors plan to leave the city this year.

“They’re saying they may have three replacement doctors. Well, if we’re losing eight and they’ve got three, that means we’re still down five doctors,” D’Eon said.

“And by the sounds of it, the doctors are already getting worn out from all the shifts that they’re having to do.”

Budnisky and Losier are also considering moving.

“It’s been an absolute nut-show for us medically, everything’s in Vancouver,” she said.

Seth Forward is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter with The Northern View. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.

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