A Quesnel woman is protesting long wait times for surgeries in the lobby of the University Hospital of Northern BC in Prince George.
Denise Tessier says she’s been waiting for a knee replacement surgery for close to three years.
“Nobody can give me a date, and I’m fed up. I can’t live like this anymore, it hurts to walk, it hurts to stand, it hurts to sit so I stay out of social situations and things like that.”
Tessier says her body doesn’t agree with painkillers, limiting her options to deal with the sustained pain. To make things worse, her husband suffers from MS, making it difficult for him to help and contributing to a “grim” situation at home.
“I’m looking down this really dark tunnel, there’s no light at the end of it. No light whatsoever, it just feels like no hope.” Tessier said referring to the lack of any sort of a solid surgery date to look forward to.
A hospital administrator told her today she is # 13 on the waitlist, but because her surgeon had his operating room hours cut for the month of June, that means she won’t have the surgery done until sometime this fall.
“The fall is not what I wanted. So I’m going to play it by ear from here on and I’m even prepared to spend the night if I have to. I don’t want to, but they do have little concrete benches here.”