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