The hospital fight
Hospitals are funny places. The odd quiet that hangs on your every footstep and cautiously invades the halls; the strange privacy you can experience from behind a thin curtain that barely stretches from wall to wall; and the way the labyrinth of locked doors and “personnel only” signs and two-way elevators turn into something very familiar after just a few days.
My poppa, who rode his stationary bike every day, didn’t quite know how to whistle and still managed to roll around on the ground with his grandkids at 86, suffered from a massive stroke three weeks before Christmas. He was rushed to Delta Hospital, and then Vancouver General where the diagnosis was not good.
My family decided that it was best he stayed in Ladner for palliative care, so the ambulance took him back.
So, Delta Hospital, which I had only visited a few times before, became my family’s home base until he passed away four days later. Since then, hospitals, especially our local one, have been far from my mind, though Steve Graham’s column on Wednesday kindly reminded me that it needs our full attention and support.
The care my grandfather received from workers at the hospital was top notch, we really had no complaints, but it was obvious their means at the hospital were stretched thin.
The first night at the hospital was spent in emergency, although there was nothing imminent about the care my grandfather needed. He stayed in a small bed in a large, open room that offered little privacy for the family that was coming and going. Next, he was moved upstairs, and was placed in a room with three or four other patients. There was more privacy, but it was even more cramped, offering little more than standing room. No more than two people could pay their respects at a time, and we often had to rotate in and out. Given our limited time with him, and our large family, we occasionally broke this rule, and at time tested the patience of staff and fellow patients. Eventually, my grandpa was given a private room for his last night with us - we could fit dozens of visitors at a time and even had a couch to catch a couple zees.
Through all of this, the benefits of staying in Ladner were obvious. We were minutes from home, always had someone close by to visit and even often ran into family friends who work at the hospital. We still found time to laugh, and did so a bit too often - once, a group of visitors had to close the door on our rowdy group.
Although my grandpa’s story was just one example of insufficient room and resources at Delta Hospital, I’m sure it’s not an isolated incident. We were lucky to eventually get a room of our own, but the first few nights were tough to handle in our already difficult situation. Even so, if my family had to commute back and forth to Surrey, Vancouver or even Richmond, our last days with such a rock in our family would have been significantly shortened.
It is clear that the hospital is lacking resources and space, and unfortunately this is not an issue specific to South Delta, although it is unique in a way. We have had to fight and protest and fight some more to keep it open because of our low population and density, which we should never have had to do. Now, with our hospital still open, what we have is still better than nothing, but that shouldn’t be acceptable.
