Delays that are blinding her

A 66-year-old woman who has lost sight in one eye fears she will lose it completely because of delays in getting cataract surgery.

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“I can’t see anything at all with my left eye and I’m starting to have trouble seeing with my right eye, so what is it like having to wait until December? Am I going to be blinded? asks Lucie Deneault, a resident of Salaberry-de-Valleyfield, in Montérégie.

After noticing her vision was deteriorating in February, Deneault made an appointment with her optometrist the following month. The ax fell: she learned that she could no longer see out of one eye and that she would have to undergo an operation.

Two months later, she was told she won’t have an appointment until December 8, nearly 10 months after she was diagnosed.

“I hardly drive anymore because I can’t see anything anymore. In fact now, I am embarrassed in all daily activities, it really bothers me and it’s hell,” explains the cashier who is currently on sick leave.

His grand-parents

Noting that her eyesight continues to deteriorate, she fears that she may be blind, as was the case with some of her grandparents.

“But they weren’t lucky enough to be able to have the operation,” Ms. Deneault drops.

One day operation

Considered an elective surgery, cataract extraction is a one-day procedure. But, due to her postcode and bureaucracy, the 60-year-old has to wait almost 40 weeks for surgery, whereas it would only take nine weeks elsewhere in her region, as she learned. The newspaper.

“It’s still ridiculous! I am on sick leave because of this and I will not be able to work again until I have surgery, when I know that I can find service quickly elsewhere, ”says the one who is currently on employment insurance.

“If the operation and the convalescence in the hospital lasted several days or weeks, I would understand, but this is just one day,” she laments.

Ready for everything

To regain her autonomy and her quality of life, Ms. Deneault and her husband are ready for anything.

“I took the steps to obtain my file and my prescription so that I could go and have my surgery elsewhere,” she says.

“If we have to go to Chibougamau so she can see, we’ll go. We are ready to cross Quebec, ”says Ms. Deneault’s spouse, Bernard St-Onge, who is worried about her.

“All I want is to have help so that I can regain my life that I have lost since March,” adds the lady.