Edmonton Family with Father in ICU for Surgical Complications Witness Horrible and “Surreal” Scenes | The Canadian News

An Edmonton family is sharing their experience in the Gray Nuns Community Hospital ICU after their 76-year-old father Dave Lowry was admitted Sept. 18 with complications from surgery.

“He ended up in the ICU on life support in a unit with 22 patients, 21 of whom were unvaccinated COVID patients,” said Debbie Christensen, Lowry’s daughter.

“My dad was the only one in the unit who was not COVID positive and the only one who was vaccinated,” Christensen said.

“The doctors and nurses were very clear: ‘You are in a COVID unit.’

“It was surreal. We wandered the hallways looking at all these people who were alone, ”he said.

Christensen said they told the family that their father could die and that they would have to say goodbye one by one.

“It is not right that we are in this situation that my family, who have done everything well, cannot be in a room with my father when we are going to lose him,” he said.

Christensen said her father managed to get better and was transferred out of the ICU on September 22, but remains in the hospital. However, he said the time he spent in the ICU opened his eyes to the situation facing doctors.

“While we are in this unit, the doctors (and nurses) are being abused horribly,” he said.

“(Healthcare workers) are being sworn in, being told that COVID is not real, and (patients) don’t want to be intubated,” Christensen said.

“There are no words at the moment. I am completely baffled. I walked through the corridors of this ICU. I have seen that it is real. “

‘The edge of the cliff’

Dr. Paul Parks, chief of emergency medicine for the Alberta Medical Association, said the situation in Alberta hospitals will only get worse without increased restrictions.

“I am strongly advocating for greater public health measures at this time and for our government to take the lead and put some significant restrictions on it,” Parks said.

He said he believes the province is just days away from implementing critical care triage, with an increase in COVID-19 patients and no workers to care for them.

“We sure are close,” he said. “We cannot continue adding (patients).

“If we don’t slow down the COVID case numbers and the curve, they are absolutely going to push us over the edge.”

Christensen shared her father’s story on social media in the hope that more Albertans would realize the dire situation in ICUs.

Christensen added that her father was unable to wear a mask or protection against COVID-19 due to his life support.

“(We were) sitting there wondering: even though he’s vaccinated, is he the small percentage that actually gets it and ends up dying from it?” she said.

“You don’t want your family there,” Christensen said. “You don’t want your loved ones in those spaces. (COVID-19 patients) are alone and can die alone. “

Parks said the ICUs in Alberta are overwhelmed with the number of COVID-19 patients.

“We are on the edge of the cliff. There is very little else we can add (to support patients) at this time, unless we slow down cases. “

Parks added that she believes there is “no question” that healthcare workers will begin to have to classify all critical care patients in a matter of days.

“This is not just about COVID patients,” he said. “We are getting to the point where anyone who needs intensive care (motor (vehicle) collisions, strokes, heart attacks, anyone who needs those intensive care resources to take care of them), if this kicks in, it’s in that equation too. .

“It will affect everyone in Alberta.”