- Aug 6, 2012
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Some of you still yearning for our socialist system? We are a nation that doesn't care about Human Rights, the dignity of it's citizens, our allies, or fair play. This guy perishing was a positive for the system that doesn't defend life. In fact, we now have laws that have legalized government sponsored suicide.
'We felt like screaming': Wife says crowded hospital failed her dying husband
Jack Webb had had enough.
During five days of struggles in Halifax's largest hospital, he'd languished for six hours in a chilly emergency room hallway, had a broken IV in his arm, and was bumped from his room by another dying patient.
On his last day, he heard staff yell the clincher: "If he stops breathing, don't resuscitate."
Not long after, the retired businessman turned to his wife and made slicing motions on his Halifax Infirmary identity band.
"He said, 'Cut it! ... Cut it!"' recalled Kim D'Arcy, who sat by the 68-year-old's bedside as he fell into despair.
"I believe Jack was terrified. ... He wanted to go home."
Webb died hours later on Feb. 1, after receiving care that Dr. Alan Drummond, a spokesman for the Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians, says is an example of "the distinct level of human suffering associated with crowded emergency departments and crowded hospitals" plaguing Canadian medicare.
Hospitals overcrowded
Canadian emergency rooms are increasingly issuing special "codes" indicating they're too full — a process that sets off a domino effect where gravely ill people like Webb are pushed into regular hospital units already operating beyond capacity.
D'Arcy says her husband had multiple sclerosis, but was a "fighter" and carried on a vigorous and active life as a walker, canoeist and world traveller. He was also a regular volunteer patient, offering himself for interviews with student doctors.
Born in Wolfville, N.S., Webb was the former owner of a Mad Man McKay home electronics franchise.
On Jan. 12, he was told by a doctor at the Queen Elizabeth II Health Sciences Centre that he had pancreatic cancer, and it had spread into his adrenal glands and liver.
The diagnosing doctor discharged Webb to his suburban Bedford, N.S., home, yet D'Arcy says she doesn't recall receiving detailed instructions on diet, palliative care options or medication for her critically ill husband, and said she was uncertain of what to expect.
Struggling to breathe
In a single week, Webb declined so quickly he lost the ability to manage his medications for cancer and his multiple sclerosis. On Jan. 27, he was struggling to breathe, prompting a rapid return to the Cobequid emergency room, the suburban facility where he was first diagnosed. Webb was transferred to the Halifax Infirmary's downtown emergency department.
Later, she said she learned Webb should have been seen by a specialist from the hospital upon arrival, according to a patient complaints adviser she later contacted.
Instead, as the clock ticked past midnight, Webb lay on a gurney shivering in an ER hallway, as other patients rapidly filled a lineup around him
'We felt like screaming': Wife says crowded hospital failed her dying husband
Jack Webb had had enough.
During five days of struggles in Halifax's largest hospital, he'd languished for six hours in a chilly emergency room hallway, had a broken IV in his arm, and was bumped from his room by another dying patient.
On his last day, he heard staff yell the clincher: "If he stops breathing, don't resuscitate."
Not long after, the retired businessman turned to his wife and made slicing motions on his Halifax Infirmary identity band.
"He said, 'Cut it! ... Cut it!"' recalled Kim D'Arcy, who sat by the 68-year-old's bedside as he fell into despair.
"I believe Jack was terrified. ... He wanted to go home."
Webb died hours later on Feb. 1, after receiving care that Dr. Alan Drummond, a spokesman for the Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians, says is an example of "the distinct level of human suffering associated with crowded emergency departments and crowded hospitals" plaguing Canadian medicare.
Hospitals overcrowded
Canadian emergency rooms are increasingly issuing special "codes" indicating they're too full — a process that sets off a domino effect where gravely ill people like Webb are pushed into regular hospital units already operating beyond capacity.
D'Arcy says her husband had multiple sclerosis, but was a "fighter" and carried on a vigorous and active life as a walker, canoeist and world traveller. He was also a regular volunteer patient, offering himself for interviews with student doctors.
Born in Wolfville, N.S., Webb was the former owner of a Mad Man McKay home electronics franchise.
On Jan. 12, he was told by a doctor at the Queen Elizabeth II Health Sciences Centre that he had pancreatic cancer, and it had spread into his adrenal glands and liver.
The diagnosing doctor discharged Webb to his suburban Bedford, N.S., home, yet D'Arcy says she doesn't recall receiving detailed instructions on diet, palliative care options or medication for her critically ill husband, and said she was uncertain of what to expect.
Struggling to breathe
In a single week, Webb declined so quickly he lost the ability to manage his medications for cancer and his multiple sclerosis. On Jan. 27, he was struggling to breathe, prompting a rapid return to the Cobequid emergency room, the suburban facility where he was first diagnosed. Webb was transferred to the Halifax Infirmary's downtown emergency department.
Later, she said she learned Webb should have been seen by a specialist from the hospital upon arrival, according to a patient complaints adviser she later contacted.
Instead, as the clock ticked past midnight, Webb lay on a gurney shivering in an ER hallway, as other patients rapidly filled a lineup around him
