Do your best to stay out of an intensive care nit
By Letter to the Editor on October 8, 2021.
Editor:
I have just been released from Foothills hospital after major surgery. What a scary experience, with more patients than beds in ICUs.
Two weeks ago, I woke up in the middle of the night with all signs pointing to serious heart attack. They stabilized me at Emergency here in Lethbridge.
I was kept on ice for eight days, until an ICU bed opened up at Foothills. Shipped north by ambulance, I had open heart valve replacement and single bypass.
Four days later, my wife drove us home, where I now recooperate and rehab. The medical staff in both Lethbridge and Calgary was phenominal.
Back to Foothills: the system was crumbling for all to see. Six of eight elevators non-operational. I was being taken for an X-ray and both X-ray rooms were shut down and converted into ICU recovery for angiograms. My X-ray was done in Emergency, with quite a lineup cued.
My four-day recovery was on the 9th floor, ICU Unit 92, in a ward with 12 beds, curtains hung from the ceiling offering scant privacy. Blood works for all was taken between midnight and 2 a.m.
Survival post-surgery was a goal I tried hard not to stray from: Eat the food, do the exercises, and keep positive. A tip of my hat to Alberta’s health care workers!
Do your best to stay healthy; it is scary out there!
Stephen King
Lethbridge
-1
… and get vaccinated!
I have a friend who had COVID (just before the vaccines were available) and who did not end up in ICU, luckily, but, who was very ill and said to me “You do not want to get this.” One of the biggest troubles with COVID now, is folks can end up with chronic long haul illnesses, including children, and can be devastating, including permanent organ damage, i.e.heart, lungs, kidneys……..Many post-COVID patients now, are ending up being readmitted to hospital because of this.