Patient went AWOL under nurses' noses
May 28, 2008
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Joe Fiorito
To recap: After a recent operation to remove a chunk of his colon, Ray Griffis was rushed to the emergency room of North York General Hospital.
He had been recuperating at home, but he reacted badly to the first round of chemotherapy and was hit with stomach troubles and what felt like the flu.
It took a good three hours before he was seen, and then he was left alone in isolation in emergency. There, he endured several instances of stomach-churning helplessness; no toilet in that room; use your imagination.
Ray's circumstances were complicated by an almost aggressive lack of attention – the nurse posted outside his room ignored him when he waved for help.
Alas, things did not improve when Ray was eventually admitted to a ward: One night, after he had lost control of himself – and no one came to clean him up, and his room smelled like a cesspool, and he was still weak from surgery – Ray cleaned himself up as best he could and made his way to the lounge to read the paper. He returned an hour and a half later, only to find his room had still not been cleaned.
Ray is 81 years old. He is a retired artillery sergeant major. He took matters into his own hands and went AWOL.
We were talking in a coffee shop at North York General. I had a copy of a letter he sent to the premier about his experiences. I asked him if he was concerned about letting his name appear in this column. He is, after all, still getting chemo at NYGH. He said, "I don't give a damn. I can fight anything."
I like old army guys.
Here's how he went AWOL: "I walked past the nurses' station four times without anyone taking notice. I must have been invisible that night ... I proceeded to find a bed in fresher air. I located one 10 feet from the nurses' station and quickly removed my slippers and crawled in. I fell fast asleep until around 6:30 a.m., when three angry people awakened me."
At least he'd had a good night's sleep. I am grinning at his pluck. I can hear the strains of the "Colonel Bogey March" as I type this. But there's nothing funny about the escape. The good news? His disappearance caused a fuss.
Ray said, "Later on, two fellows from management came down to see me. They asked me for the names of the nurses. I said, 'I don't know the names of the nurses. Don't you know who you've got on staff?' "
You can hear indignation in his voice; those two management fellows could not cut it in Ray's army.
I have compressed this story mightily. Take my word, it is worse than you can imagine. An irony: there is a framed certificate hanging on a wall in one of the corridors of the hospital. The certificate, awarded by the Canadian Council on Health Services Accreditation, reads: "This institution meets the national standards of quality for health services set by the Council."
Heaven help the nation.
I have had much mail from readers in Toronto, and across the province, whose experiences are similar to Ray's. You will read some of these on Friday.
Meanwhile, a representative of NYGH, said the hospital was looking into Ray's situation; apparently there is a process in place to deal with complaints brought to the attention of the hospital.
In the meantime I am still waiting to hear from someone in a position of senior responsibility at NYGH, because it would be nice to know if what ails emergency there is considered an emergency.
Joe Fiorito usually appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Email: jfiorito@thestar.ca
Toronto Star