So, Dave broke his foot snow boarding right before I was supposed to come up for one of my regular trips. The timing was perfect I would be arriving just in time to take care of him and right before they were thinking of scheduling his surgery if they determined he needed it. I was ready to don my sexy nurse's outfit and get to work.
In the three days between breaking his foot and my and my arrival, he was x-rayed at the mountain, wrapped and splinted, prescribed painkillers, scheduled to see an orthopedist in Vancouver, given a digital copy of the x-rays (which he emailed to my dad (also an orthopedist)), given a CT scan, evaluated by a foot and ankle specialist, and scheduled for emergency surgery the day following my arrival. I was impressed by the methodical efficiency of the Canadian health care system and was hopeful that this would be a great example for my neo-con acquaintances in the US. See! Not so bad, and aside from the drugs and the walking boot, close to free too.
But then things started to get wonky. My dad was telling us that Dave definitely didn't need surgery, but the two orthopedists who saw his CT scans (much more detailed) said he did need surgery. These were our options:
- Get the surgery done the next day.
- Get the CT scans to my dad for a second completely informed opinion, postpone the surgery, and see what dad has to say.
Unfortunately, option 2 would mean delaying the surgery six months because it would turn the surgery from emergency to elective. This would mean that if my father looked at the CT and decided that he did need surgery, by the time he could have the surgery done the bone would have fused on its own and no longer an issue (healed well or otherwise). We went with option 1 mostly because we felt that we had no other choice.
We never met his surgeon, except for when he passed us in the hall on the way in and quickly shook Dave's hand. I was never able to question why this surgery was happening or what they were planning to do to him (a bone graft had been added to the mix at the last minute with no explanation). The surgeon did take the time to sit down with Dave and explain the procedure, but Dave was high on anesthetics at the time and he only remembers the doctor using technical terms.
When the surgery was over, no one came out to speak with me about the outcome. I don't think this is typical of the system, everyone else in the waiting room was given a conference with their family member's surgeon, I think we just had a doctor with zero bedside manner. It reminded me of when my mother was at UCLA for a major trauma and we couldn't get anyone to talk to us. My dad said that some hospitals are good at doing whatever it takes to keep you alive in an emergency and everything else sucks, while other hospitals excel at elective surgeries and pre- and post-op care. I think St. Paul's is one of the former.
Anyways, I finally found out that Dave was out of surgery and ready to go home after bothering the nurses enough times. They kept referring to me as "his ride." I guess the ring and my being listed as his emergency contact wasn't enough for them to think of me as family. We got no post-op instructions and were given no clue as to what to expect when we got home.
When we related the experience to our Canadian friends they assured us that it was an atypical experience and that if we had gone to the main hospital on the other side of False Creek we would have been much happier.
He's doing fine now. We still don't have the clearest idea of what they did to his foot, but that will come with the next follow up appointment and x-ray. He's not allowed to put weight on his foot for a few more weeks, but he gets around on crutches. He can travel two miles in a given day through downtown, which is way more than I would ever do in his position. I'd just let myself get fat and lazy like the Ugly American I am.
I'm still in favor of universal health care in the US. I think that 46 million uninsured in a first world country is a travesty and that innovation without accessibility is negligent. I know that there will be sacrifices in terms of the quality that we have grown to expect (while others have come to expect nothing), but I find that worth the benefits to American society as a whole. We are not a land of the privileged few, we are a country of many different races, beliefs, and means and we need to be accountable to all.
