by Thomas Smith

On Monday, my Dad woke up feeling off. There was a heaviness to his chest and something felt different to his breathing. He figured that his allergies were acting up, or perhaps he had caught a cold.

Neither were correct.

After I got home from work on Wednesday last week, something seemed different to him. Something that was not simply allergies or a cold. When I spoke with him, there was a tone of fear in his voice, some confusion, or perhaps frustration that one experiences with an aging body. Later that evening, my father could not lift his head up without feeling ill and dizzy. He could not lift either hand above his head. After pleading from my Aunt and Mother, he decided to drive with my Mom to the Haliburton ER.

After arriving at the Haliburton Hospital, his health began to decline. The doctor in Haliburton was wonderful to my parents. After listing a mile-long list of potential causes of my father’s ailments including stroke, heat exhaustion, and blood clots, the doctor said my father needed to get CT scans done. Due to the lack of a CT scanner in Haliburton County, my father needed to be urgently transported to Peterborough Regional Health Centre.

I was under the impression that heat exhaustion was the leading theory as he had been working in a stifling garage with the door closed to block black flies and mosquitoes from biting him.

My father says that he remembers what each bump felt like in the back of that ambulance. It threw him around so much and caused such discomfort, the paramedics pulled over to safely give him nitroglycerin and other medications in an attempt to stabilize him.

“We must be near Emily Park,” he asked the paramedic.

“Yes actually, we just passed the sign,” said the paramedic, letting out a small chuckle.

My father’s health was declining on route to Peterborough.

He was given two options. The first was that they could turn around and bring him back to Haliburton. They would not be able to do the CT scan, but he would be more comfortable and could likely stabilize him. The other option was to continue traveling on this perilous journey, but endure the potholes and jostling in the back of the ambulance.

Screw that, he thought.

Returning would include running over the same potholes he had already endured.

At 1:30 a.m. I was awoken to a phone call. My heart dropped into my stomach and I feared the worst. Three blood clots were found in his lungs. One in the left, two in the right.

When my father went to the hospital in Haliburton, I was playing video games with friends. My parents didn’t want to interrupt me so I learned they had left over text. I could not remember the last thing I said to my father.

That haunted me for eight ever-stretching hours before I heard his voice again.

Luckily, the clots were caught in time before they could do serious permanent damage (that we know of). He is back home now.

If Haliburton ER had a CT scanner, he likely would not have had to travel to Peterborough by ambulance. He would not have had to endure getting thrown around in the back and then offered the choice to continue or turn around.

The CT scanner cannot come soon enough. The 100 kilometers between Haliburton and Peterborough could mean life or death to yourself or a loved one. How many people must we lose before our health system is changed? Before our hospitals in Haliburton County can treat everyone appropriately and actually have the staff on hand?

Whose loved one must die before we see change?