Peninsula resident Dayna Bowman is still shaking her head over congestion at Peace Arch Hospital last week.
The situation was so bad, her 73-year-old mother was lying on a gurney in the corridor outside the emergency department for four days after being admitted, she said.
Fraser Health did not comment on the issue by Peace Arch News press deadline Thursday afternoon.
Last Friday, some 42 patients were in the department, Bowman said, spilling out into hallways converted into temporary wards by the addition of portable screens.
Among them was her mother, Gail, who suffers from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, which affects her heart and lungs and necessitates cyclical stays in the hospital to address build ups of carbon dioxide in her system.
“It’s atrocious,” Bowman told PAN last week, adding that her mother was fearful and almost “delirious” as a result of being unable to sleep.
“She was brought in Tuesday and she’s still in the hallway. There’s no room to visit with patients. The nurses don’t even know what to do – it’s absolutely absurd.”
There was good news later that same afternoon, however. Her mother was found a bed in a room in the fifth floor ACE (acute care for the elderly) unit, Bowman said, and she and her children were able to visit her there that night.
“After four days and three nights we went up to her room and found her fast asleep.”
By the next morning, her mother was “markedly improved,” she added. And this week it looked as though she would shortly be able to return home.
But the relief Bowman felt at the temporary respite for her mother has not diminished her concerns about overcrowding at the hospital, she wrote in an email update this week.
Even in the ACE unit, she said, some patients are in dining room and recreation areas, with no nearby washroom or privacy.
“Because of the nature of her condition, this is just one of what will be frequent hospitalizations for her,” she wrote. “I dread the next round already knowing that she faces the same situation of days on end in a hallway waiting for a room.”