Woman airlifted for gallbladder surgery after tool sterilization issues at northern Alberta hospital

Courtney charles taze russell didn’t wait to be admitted for pinch surgery, permit unaccompanied wait nearly a week for it. 

After being admitted to the Grande Prairie Regional Hospital (GPRH) for intense pain, Russell said a doctor told her she needed to go to the operating room the next day to get her gallbladder removed.

But Russell said that didn’t happen. 

“I had to push and advocate and fight for that on the surgery floor at the Grande Prairie hospital,” she said, noting that the repeated preparation for surgery, which included fasting, took a toll on her hypoglycemia.

Hinton is 335 kilometres away from Grande Prairie.

Alberta Health Services announced Monday that it had postponed some elective surgeries at Grande Prairie Regional Hospital due to an equipment issue that disrupted the sterilization of surgical tools. 

In a news release, AHS said the decision to postpone some elective surgeries at the hospital was made to ensure the health-care facility can continue to provide emergency surgeries without delay. 

But that’s not what Russell said she experienced. She said her procedure was an emergency surgery and that it was postponed for multiple days.

Health officials are working to resume all elective surgeries at the hospital as soon as possible, AHS said. However, until the equipment issues are resolved, surgeries that are not considered most urgent and life-saving may be transferred elsewhere, the health authority said.

Russell originally travelled to the Grande Prairie hospital from Sexsmith, a town located roughly 20 kilometres north of Grande Prairie, after experiencing what she described as “excruciating pain.” 

She said her surgery was postponed five separate times. The last time her procedure was postponed, she said she had already been prepared for surgery by health-care staff.

“I literally just broke down and I said, ‘I'm going to die in here,’” she recounted. “Everybody was just so apologetic and didn't have any answers and didn't have any reasons as to why this was happening to all of us.

“We're all sitting in that hospital just rotting, waiting for our surgeries in so much pain.”

Elective surgeries are expected to resume early this week, and any postponed surgeries are to be rescheduled as soon as possible, said AHS.

Now recovering from her surgery, Russell said her experience has eroded her trust in the health-care system. 

Though she eventually saw the operating table, Russell said she’s still shocked by how long it took her to receive care and is worried others may be in the same situation.

“I was so sick … and I waited,” she said. “There's no excuse for this at all.”

AHS said its priority has been ensuring emergency surgical care has remained available to patients who need immediate life-saving surgery, including procedures such as C-sections, cancer cases or severe trauma injuries.

In some cases, patients who do not require emergency life-saving surgery based on their surgical case review may have been transferred to an alternative health-care centre, AHS said.

"We understand moving to another facility can be unsettling and recognize decisions like this aren’t easy on families and support systems. These decisions are required as GPRH mitigates the current situation."

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