Kelowna hospital in krisis… errr… crisis
I had to go to Kelowna General Hospital’s (KGH) ER with a gall stone and I waited for about forty minutes laying on the floor of the ER waiting room, sitting up every few minutes to throw up into a bucket with my body being attacked by intense pain. I was not going to die, but it was probably one of the least pleasant experiances of my life, I’ve had open heart surgery so I know what I’m talking about.
So when I hear that KGH is having an ER crisis [cbc], I’m not surprised. Especially given that the local population is always complaining about KGH wait times, as though a hospital is supposed to subscribe to the same service ethos as a McDonald’s.
Waiting times are obviously a problem in an emergency room, but it’s hard to offer a catch all solution. More money obviously, but neither privitized nor public health care systems tend to spend enough on ER services. Also making sure the people in the ER are there for actual emergencies and not just because their GP is out of town, or they figure it’ll be cheaper and easier than the walk-in clinic.
You’ve had open heart surgery?
What’s the difference between that and any other type of heart surgery? Isn’t most surgery open-____ whatever? Otherwise it’s more of a massage or sharp poke, no?
Surgery is surgery. Thus, arthroscopic surgery, where a tiny hole in the knee is cut, and everything goes in there.
It’s the open chest that defines open-heart surgery.
Oh wait. Experts seem to disagree: this one says the difference is whether or not a heart-lung bypass machine is used during the surgery.
closed-heart surgery is apparently when they do stuff like run surgical instruments into the big blood vessels, without opening the chest.