If a loved one was having a medical emergency, moaning and grimacing from extreme pain, what would you give to make it stop?
If a family member needed emergency medical procedures including an ambulance and surgery at 2 a.m., what would you do?
Most Canadians would give anything to relieve the suffering of a fellow human being but with close family and friends the urgency is doubled.
One of the first things you would do is get them to the nearest hospital and find them the best medical care available.
Then you would rest assured that they are in good hands with all the miracles of modern science at their disposal.
The outcomes aren’t always favourable, but many times the results are everything you could hope for and a full recovery is assured.
That’s health care in Canada.
Right now I have a fresh perspective on health care because my family went through just such an emergency last week.
More specifically, I have first-hand experience at our own Hospital, the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre.
As a patient I have been treated for stones and broken bones and the procedures I needed were often invasive, sometimes painful and always very stressful.
I have myself been probed, prodded and photographed internally with various hi-tech imaging machines and paraphernalia.
But speaking as a dad and a sentimental one at that, I would gladly endure the probes and jabs and cameras again to avoid seeing one of my kids in pain.
When the problem was finally properly diagnosed and a course of action was decided on, everyone was relieved but then came the stress and uncertainty of emergency surgery.
We handed our loved family member over to the medical team at the hospital, fully confident in the skill of the surgeon and operating room staff.
In the wee hours of the morning we finally got the news that the surgery was successful and the recovery could begin.
It was heart-breaking for the whole family but in the end we realized how fortunate we were.
That’s health care in Canada.
Recovering from surgery presents a whole new set of challenges but fortunately for us another team of highly trained professionals was ready to take over.
I respect and admire the nursing profession but this time it was very personal and the compassionate work I witnessed brought a tear to my eye.
I readily admit I have a thing for nurses.
Whether they were caring for me or helping a loved one, I never met a nurse I didn’t immediately fall in love with, on a professional level of course.
Sometimes healing hurts and the pain from the emergency ward was replaced by the pain of recovery after surgery.
As our hearts continued to break we were constantly reassured by the loving, compassionate bedside care and we were hopefully looking for signs of improvement.
My fondest wishes go out to all nurses everywhere and also, a very affectionate shout out to those sisters of mercy in surgical recovery.
Our community should be proud to have such people living and working among us.
It was quite an adventure for our family and included paramedics, emergency care, diagnostics, surgery, recovery, drugs and all the frills – first class all the way.
When we stopped to settle the bill before we left we had to pay a few bucks for the TV rental and nothing more.
We left the hospital with a sigh of relief and the assurance of a speedy recovery as we enjoyed the wintry countryside on the way home.
That’s health care in Canada.
