Their stories are part of the remarkable trends seen in the province’s hospitals in recent months. Although spring is typically a time when emergency departments are less backlogged, the latest statistics from Ontario Health show that wait times for ER admissions have reached an all-time high. As previously reported by CBC News, record-setting ER bottlenecks are caused by a variety of factors outside of emergency rooms, including difficulty getting patients in because hospital wards are operating at or above capacity, staff shortages due to COVID -19 exposures and burnout and limited access to family physicians.
Dozens of patients and their family members contacted CBC News to tell their emergency room stories. Here are some of them.

The family doctor would not see a child with a fever

When Mia Hutchinson took her daughter Téa to the emergency room at Sick Kids Hospital in Toronto on a Wednesday night in June, the panel in the waiting room showed a wait time of three and a half hours. “Well we thought maybe four, four and a half hours. We never thought it would be eight hours,” Hutchinson said. “We sat in a hallway with three other families for about five hours and then moved to a room where we waited another three hours.” Three-year-old Téa Hutchinson’s family doctor told her parents they couldn’t bring her to the doctor’s office because she had a fever and cough and told them to go to the emergency room. The family had to wait eight hours in the ER before seeing a doctor. (Submitted by Mia Hutchinson) By the time the family made the decision to go to the emergency room, Téa had a fever of 39 to 40 degrees with a bad cough for four days and was dehydrated. “We couldn’t get the fever down. We called our family doctor and they wouldn’t let us bring her [to the doctor’s office] because of her symptoms,” Hutchinson said. “When we call the doctor and they tell us because we’re sick we can’t come in, it doesn’t make sense,” he said. “Aren’t doctors for the sick? His refusal to see us caused us to go to the emergency room.” Hutchinson says she’s seen other children in the ER with high fevers and coughs, symptoms she believes — like her daughter’s — could and should be handled at a family practice.

Cancer patient endures 3 long waits in the ER

Nancy Hunter says her husband Kevin received wonderful care from the cancer ward staff at Victoria Hospital in London, Ont., but his experiences in the emergency room were anything but ideal.
After Kevin’s lymphoma was diagnosed, the oncology staff issued him a special card with instructions that while he was undergoing chemotherapy, he should go to the ER immediately if he developed a fever. Kevin Hunter, pictured with his wife Nancy, had to endure long waits in the emergency room at Victoria Hospital in London, Ont. despite chemotherapy for lymphoma. (Submitted by Nancy Hunter) “We were assured that this ‘fever card’ would help the ER staff identify Kevin as a cancer patient,” Nancy said. “The impression was that we would be given priority. Our experience was the complete opposite: no priority was given.” In his three visits to the hospital’s emergency room over the course of two months last fall, his wait was never less than 10 hours. “Every time we went to the hospital ER, our wait to get a bed was excruciatingly long,” Nancy said. “Kevin was immune to risk from his cancer treatment, so our perceived risk created another level of stress.” During a wait in the emergency department, she vomited on the toilet floor, but did not get a bed for several hours afterward. Even arriving by ambulance on his third visit didn’t shorten the wait: he wasn’t admitted for 13 hours. Kevin Hunter died of lymphoma in November. The couple was married for 47 years. “I still don’t understand why very sick cancer patients have to wait hours in any ER,” Nancy said.

14 hours in a chair, 48 hours waiting for a bed

On a Wednesday in mid-June, Fiona Hammett’s blood pressure dropped and she passed out. She was taken to the emergency room at Hamilton’s Juravinski Hospital, where her son Greg Noonan says she waited 14 hours in a chair before being seen. “A nurse came to help her to the toilet when she passed out again, showing signs of a stroke,” Noonan said. “After 20 hours she was told she was admitted and then offered a stretcher to lay her down.” Fiona Hammett spent more than 48 hours in the emergency room at Juravinski Hospital in Hamilton in mid-June before being admitted to a hospital ward bed. (Greg Noonan) Noonan emailed CBC News that Friday morning, 39 hours after Hammett arrived at the ER. “He is still in emergency today on a stretcher because there are no beds available,” he wrote. “This health system is broken. These nurses are overworked. Something has to be done.” Hammett finally got a bed on a ward at 8 p.m., after more than 48 hours in the emergency room, Noonan said. He remained in the hospital until he was discharged at the end of June and is now waiting for an MRI.

A broken bone, a long night in the ER

Mona Romeh had been waiting in the emergency room at Oakville Trafalgar Memorial Hospital for nearly six hours with a broken bone in her right arm when she spotted this story about ER delays in Ontario and emailed CBC News. “Funny how I found your article now. As I sit here. So fitting,” Romeh wrote.
Mona Romeh spent a long night in the emergency room at Oakville Trafalgar Memorial Hospital after breaking the fifth metacarpal in her right hand, what’s known as a boxer’s fracture. (Submitted by Mona Romeh) “I haven’t seen a doctor yet,” he said. “I’m here for a broken bone that needs surgery and now I just might leave. This is absolutely ridiculous. It’s a horrible feeling, the ping pong of thoughts, should I stay, should I go?” Romeh said she felt “frustrated and tired and just defeated,” but also worried that leaving the ER would make her feel worse and put her at risk of harm. He stayed and participated in what he described as a long early morning discussion about the current state of health care in Ontario between some of the patients and a group of nurses. “They had empathy and were just trying to deal with the situation they were given,” Rome said. He finally saw a doctor and was referred to Milton Hospital for surgery in late June.

“Something has to change”

On Father’s Day, William Walker’s blood pressure skyrocketed. “He was very dizzy, he had a headache and he was nauseous,” said his wife Grace Walker. “He has a heart condition, so we didn’t want to take any chances.” She called Telehealth Ontario for advice and was told William’s symptoms warranted a trip to the emergency department. His wait at Lakeridge Health in Oshawa lasted nine hours. William Walker, pictured here with his wife Grace, has a heart condition and spent nine hours in the emergency room at Lakeridge Health’s Oshawa hospital on Father’s Day. (Submitted by Grace Walker) “Something needs to change when you see very young babies and elderly people waiting for hours to be seen by a doctor,” Grace said. She and her husband saw many people in the ER with minor injuries, such as sprained ankles. “Certainly some of them could have been cared for at an after-hours clinic or waited until the next day to seek treatment,” Grace said. “At some point one of the nurses came into the waiting room to announce that from now on there would be a three to four hour wait and suggested some alternatives, such as another hospital, urgent care or a family doctor. No one moved.”

Hip fracture at age 100

Irene Fraser has only been to the emergency room twice in her life, and that’s even more remarkable considering she’s 100 years old. Fraser suffered a fall at her long-term care home on a Sunday in mid-June and was taken to Hamilton Health Sciences’ Juravinski Hospital emergency room before noon. Her son Jim and daughter-in-law Janet Fraser, a retired registered nurse, say Irene was still in the hallway at 10 p.m., hadn’t seen a doctor and wasn’t allowed to drink anything. Irene Fraser, left, pictured with daughter-in-law Janet Fraser, had to go to an emergency room in Hamilton for a broken hip in mid-June, just days after this photo was taken. It is 100 years old. (Submitted by Janet Fraser) “It looked like nothing could be done for her until she was seen by a doctor,” said Janet, who alternated with her husband staying with Irene. “I wondered why they hadn’t given her an IV. I told the nurse in the office that I was concerned that she hadn’t had anything to drink all day and that dehydration had been a problem in the past. She was also off her regular medication all day, as far as we know.’ Janet says she knows how well trained and skilled the nurses are, so she doesn’t understand why the tests and x-rays couldn’t have been ordered by the emergency room RNs or the nurses. “The entire time we were there, no one came to talk to us about her care, nor did anyone ask us about her health, her needs, her habits, her cognitive abilities, her pain, her hearing or her eyesight, health problems”. Janet said. “We could provide much-needed information.” Irene was seen after midnight by a doctor, who immediately called Jim with what he said was a polite and thorough explanation of the benefits and risks of surgery for her fractured hip. She is now back in her long-term care home, recovering from surgery and receiving physical therapy.