AUSTRALIA: Life-saving surgery cancelled - Elderly Canberra woman fears death

CANBERRA (The Canberra Times), April 6, 2008: AN ELDERLY woman says she's living in constant fear of death after Canberra Hospital cancelled a vital operation at the last minute. It won't reschedule until there is a spare bed in intensive care. Mary Josephine Davies, 78, needs surgery on a growing aortic aneurism, which she said doctors told her could "pop at any second and that'd be the end". Surgery was booked for April 1 but, after enduring a traumatic bowel-emptying process and receiving anaesthetic in the operating theatre, she was told the operation had been cancelled because there weren't enough intensive care nurses to staff the unit. "It's been shocking," Mrs Davies said. "It's a very serious operation. The doctors told me I may not wake up from it so I was geared up weeks before. I got my nerve and went in and when I was there, I said to a nurse, 'Do you think I can do a runner?' The nurse said, 'No, if you do that, your aortic aneurism's going to go on you and that'll be the end of you."' ACT Health chief executive Mark Cormack said several factors led to a full intensive care unit. "We've always got pressure on our beds, particularly intensive care unit beds. Last week, there were staff shortages as well as more high-trauma patients than usual," he said. "In these situations, doctors need to assess the situation and determine which patient needs the beds." Mrs Davies and her son Damien waited from 6am to 4pm to hear whether she would get a bed. Mr Davies said, "Mum was in a state, she was still groggy from the anaesthetic and had to wear one of those hospital nighties and paper panties, she didn't know whether the surgery was happening or not. "Waiting with us was a 60-year-old man who needed open heart surgery and his operation was cancelled as well." Mrs Davies was discharged and told she would be contacted to reschedule the surgery. After hearing nothing from the hospital, Mrs Davies called to find there was no appointment booked, and that her specialist needed to resubmit a surgery request form. "We called the specialist who said the hospital had cancelled nine of his patient's surgeries in the last few weeks," Mr Davies said. "They said they'd told the hospital before: it was their mistake and the onus is on them to reschedule." Mr Cormack said the hospital should have booked the next appointment. "That should've happened in this case, clearly something went wrong and we apologise to Ms Davies and her son for the concern it caused them." Mr Cormack said Canberra Hospital was making a concerted effort to get more intensive care unit nurses. "If there aren't enough intensive care unit nurses available, we have to limit the number of beds. We are always recruiting nurses and we also have a training program to progress general practice nurses to intensive care nurses." Mrs Davies said she had no hard feelings towards Canberra Hospital staff. "It's not the doctors and nurses, it's those sitting up in their ivory castles making the decisions. They need to do more to look after patients, they need to have more compassion for us," she said. After he was contacted by The Sunday Canberra Times, Mr Cormack said the hospital had secured a surgery appointment for Mrs Davies on Monday. By Cayla Dengate Copyright © 2008. Fairfax Digital