Saskatchewan Woman’s Kidney Surgery Delayed Due to COVID-19 | The Canadian News

On September 15, the Saskatchewan Health Authority booked Jessica Bailey’s surgery. He suffers from chronic kidney disease and has been waiting for a transplant for years.

About a week later, the SHA canceled it and all organ transplants in the province.

“It was devastating,” Bailey said.

She was overwhelmed with emotion and had to pause before continuing.

“It was like having some hope … that you’re going to get your legs back … and then rip them off again.”

On September 23, the health authority announced that it was so overwhelmed by COVID-19 patients that it was delaying some services and closing others to divert staff to ICUs.

For Bailey, it means more waiting.

“Basically the only thing keeping me alive is dialysis,” he said, “which is painful and (lasts) 10 hours a day.”

She said she first became aware of the problem when she put her arm on a blood pressure machine at a pharmacy three years ago. He just told her to see a doctor, and about a year later, he was on dialysis.

Bailey told Global News that doctors told her she has less than one percent of kidney function left.

She started hoping to find a donor and her best friend’s husband volunteered even before he knew they were a match.

“I love her and have been her friend forever. And I love my wife and there’s no way I’m not doing it, ”Jason Anderson said.

Speaking from Vancouver, he said he has been in regular contact with organ transplant coordinators in both provinces.

“It’s not that they haven’t heard anything, it’s that they didn’t say anything,” he said about the communication surrounding the announcement.

The pandemic has already slowed down the process, he said, but now he believes the Saskatchewan coordinator was reassigned.

He told Global News that it means that the encrypted USB stick he sent with his medical test results is on an empty desk.

“I got over the initial shock,” he said, when asked what the ad meant to his friend.

“My wife is still in the denial stage.”

Global News asked SHA if those who need surgery immediately can do it in other provinces.

They did not give an answer before the deadline.

At a press conference Wednesday, Saskatchewan Health Minister Paul Merriman said the government will restore services as soon as it can.

“I know there are people who have been waiting for a long time, whether it be for their surgery, or their organ donation, or their procedure or their consultation,” Merriman said.

“And those decisions are taken very seriously to make sure that we are trying to protect people who go into hospitals … from some of those people who may be delayed for a short period of time.”

Infectious disease physician Dr. Alex Wong told Global News that he only hopes hospitals will get more crowded because cases continue to rise.

“We are only 20 or 30 beds away from being able to survive any longer, and it seems like we are still several weeks away from our peak.”

Wong said the provincial government should increase its testing and tracing capabilities and implement stricter guidelines to “be aware of what is happening in schools, in daycare centers, in long-term care (homes) and hospitals because it is out of control right now. “

Bailey said all he can do is wait and wait for the hospitals to clear.

She was very frank about what the canceled surgery means to her, saying that the longer she goes without a transplant, the more likely she is to die.

And he said that it is not fair to deal with the consequences of other people’s decisions.

“It is your right whether you want to receive the vaccine or not, but you are taking away my right to live,” he said.

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