Part 1“The union filed a complaint,” the nurse said to her colleague. “They don’t want us porting patients. But I don’t know how to use the new computerized porter booking system, so I just do it myself.” By her own account, she has more than 20 years’ experience in nursing, including at the old Humber River Regional Hospital.During my previous chemotherapy session, she was the “senior” nurse who had angrily and confrontationally increased the drip rate of the drug I was receiving, overruling a younger, more recently educated nurse, whose patient I was. The “senior” felt that I was “wasting their time” by insisting they follow the chemotherapy protocol laid out in my file by my oncologist.When I had an entirely preventable rigors reaction (intense sweating and uncontrollable shaking) to the drug minutes later, the “experienced” nurse shrugged it off, casually saying, “well, that has never happened before.”Except similar events have happened before. Frequently.The “old” Humber River Regional Hospital (at its site on Finch Avenue West) had frequent problems with patient care. The first problem I heard was from my 19-year-old neighbour who went to emergency with unexplained continuous bleeding from his nose. He bled for 36 hours at the hospital while doctors found “nothing wrong with him”. “It felt like the doctors and nurses didn’t take me seriously because there was no obvious bullet wound causing the bleeding,” he told me. He believes that he would have died if his terrified parents hadn’t taken him out of the Humber River and checked him in to Sunnybrook hospital. “The University Health Network (UHN) was completely different”, he recounted. “They actually cared about me and took my condition seriously. They put me on a new drug and it saved my life.”His story and many similar ones were used to justify the massive cost of the new Humber River site, with claims of the latest technology improving patient care. And plenty new technology is being used, like the pneumatic tubes that deliver blood samples to the lab at such high speed that they shatter the blood cells, leading to faulty test results. “They promised us when they installed the system that it wouldn’t harm the blood samples,” another nurse told me. But that didn’t prevent my being admitted to emergency due to a bad test result. “You are standing and talking to me, so this result can’t be correct. You would be dead,” the ER doctor told me looking at my blood test result after I waited 60 minutes to be admitted (imagine if it had been a correct result!). A couple of days later it was, “the system would have beeped to warn me, don’t worry!” said casually by a nurse who almost gave me the wrong type of blood transfusion (which could have killed me).Technology is neither the problem nor the solution in these cases. The underlying cause is a lack of critical thought, patience, and listening to patients by burned out, jaded health care professionals. And the patient experiences that I have heard about at the “new” Humber River while researching this story are exactly like the old ones: Medication screw ups, sending elderly patients to non-OHIP-covered offsite clinics they can’t afford, uncompassionate and confrontational medical professionals, and long wait times, including in emergency cases.Stay tuned for Part 2 of this article in the next edition.
Can you identify the man in the photo?
On behalf of Madeleine Lefebvre, Chief Librarian, at the Ryerson University Library in Toronto. Ms. Lefebvre and other members of the Canadian Association of Research Libraries recently toured the Netherlands and were asked to help identify the soldier in the picture.The Canadian soldier (Corporal) seen in the photo below is one of the liberators of the Netherlands in WWII.In a period between September 1944 and early April 1945, he was housed with a family in Eindhoven, a city in the south of the Netherlands. The family name is Andersson and their address was Franciscus Sonniusstraat 18 in Eindhoven.The name of the mother was Alida Catharina Andersson (born 1908) and the father was Henricus Johannes Andersson (born 1907). They had three sons: Anton (born 1936), Pieter (born 1940) and Hans (born 1946)The picture was sent by the soldier to the family in Eindhoven after the war. In the picture are also his wife and son in Canada. We do not have his name or city the picture was sent from.Is there a possibility to post a message on your website or for instance in a magazine? In the hope that someone will recognize him.
Memorial Fund Raises Money for Boost Child & Youth Advocacy Centre
I do not want to spend too much time on the sickening details I heard in a downtown courtroom.Melonie Biddersingh was 17 years old when she died. Prior to her death, Melonie endured starvation and horrific abuse at the hands of her father Everton Biddersingh and stepmother Elaine Biddersingh. In September 1994, Melonie’s body was found in a burning suitcase; her autopsy revealed that she had suffered several fractures and weighed only 50 pounds.Two years earlier, Melonie’s 13 year old brother Dwayne, fell to his death from the balcony of the Biddersingh’s apartment. His tragic death continues to be surrounded by suspicion; many wonder why a generally happy boy from Jamaica would jump to his death.Earlier this year both Everton and Elaine Biddersingh were found guilty of murder in Melonie’s death; Everton of first-degree and Elaine second-degree.I am not related to this family but this tragedy affected me. I attended the criminal proceedings against Everton and Elaine and sought out Opal Austin, mother of Melonie and Dwayne, at the trial. I learned that in an effort to give her precious children a better life she entrusted them to their father and stepmother with the hopes that they could fulfill her wish. I saw a light in Opal’s eye when she shared how Melonie loved children and wanted to be a nurse and how Dwayne loved singing and wanted to be a rapper. The light in Opal’s eye has been snuffed out along with the hopes and dreams of Melonie and Dwayne.As I got to know Opal, I suggested honouring Melonie and Dwayne’s life in the hopes that the innocence and purity of these children would prevail over evil. Opal and her daughter Raquel agreed and chose Boost Child & Youth Advocacy Centre (CYAC) as the beneficiary of these efforts – The Dwayne and Melonie Memorial Fund will support Boost CYAC’s Child Victim Witness Support Program (CVWSP). This program provides court preparation for children and youth who are called to testify. Children learn what their role is as a witness and what they can expect while on the stand. The program helps children and families understand verdicts and helps to explain what specific judgments mean.My prayer is that through this fund, Melonie and Dwayne will be able to support other victims of abuse to fulfill their hopes and dreams. The goal is $5000.00. Any donation is appreciated.To make a donation to The Dwayne & Melonie Memorial Fund: www.gifttool.com/athon/MyFundraisingPage?ID=2240&AID=3011&PID=575273To learn more about Boost CYAC:www.boostforkids.orgMEDIA CONTACT:Lindsay Jolie | Director of Communications & Community Relationsjolie@boostforkids.rorg | (416) 560-7568