'It's been horrible': Brandon woman in hospital waiting for surgery hasn't eaten for a month
A Brandon woman who hasn't eaten solid food for more than a month while waiting for surgery to treat a rare condition says she feels like Manitoba's health system is failing her — a surgeon can't be found to do the operation.
"It's been horrible. It seems like waiting two weeks at a time just for one doctor to get back [to me]," Sharon Ellerington said from her bed at the Brandon Regional Health Centre. "It's just felt like a lot of rejection."
Ellerington, 43, was admitted to hospital on Sept. 26 after experiencing severe abdominal pain. After a few tests, doctors confirmed she had a twisted ligament cutting off blood flow to an artery in her abdomen.
Ellerington said it's a very rare and painful condition and finding a surgeon in Manitoba to operate on the ligament has proven to be a challenge.
No solid food since hospital admission
For the past month, she hasn't eaten solid food or had anything to drink because nothing will pass through her intestines. She is surviving on intravenous fluids.
"It just keeps you going, is what it does. I'm very weak and I've lost a lot of weight," said Ellerington. "It's not exactly the healthy way to do it."
"I feel very isolated. I feel almost, like I said, rejected," she said, adding that she misses being with her family. "It's very, very long days. It feels very lonely."
Daughter reaching out across Canada
Her daughter, Brittany Hunkin, has been by her side the entire time and is reaching out to surgeons and clinics across Canada and the U.S. trying to find someone who will perform the operation.
"It's heartbreaking," Hunkin said in a phone interview from Virden, Man. "It's not like my mom. She's always so active. She plays racquetball and she loves being with her family."
"It's hard for her to not be able to do those things," Hunkin added.
Hunkin worries that her mother's condition is deteriorating and hopes her family's plight catches the eye of someone who can help. Hunkin posted her plea on Facebook in a post that has received hundreds of shares and comments.
"She's starting to lose hope," Hunkin said. "That's so unlike her because she's such a positive person. She feels like no one cares."
Cancer treatment much faster
Ellerington and her daughter said the process for this surgery stands in stark difference to what happened when she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
"When she had her cancer, they were very quick to catch it," Hunkin said. "They did everything they could to make sure ... to get rid of it."
Ellerington praised the nurses and other medical professionals in Brandon for the bedside care she has been receiving, but as for resolving the problem and getting the operating she needs, she feels the healthcare system is failing her.
"I feel that so much more could be done," Ellerington said. "I don't know that it's because we are lacking the surgeons or lacking anything other than communication and taking charge of it."
She suggests other patients in similar situations take charge of their own health.
"I was a very patient person. I thought, you know, it's just a process and you've got to wait for it. But you don't. You don't have to wait," Ellerginton said. "You need to be your own advocate and realize when you really have to start reaching out on your own."
Meanwhile she and her daughter are hoping and waiting.
"I try to stay positive," Hunkin said. "You hope for the best but prepare for the worst."
Prairie Mountain Health, the authority tasked with operating the Brandon Regional Health Centre, said in a statement that it could not comment on the matter due to patient privacy and confidentiality.
