After serious collision in Italy, woman stuck on surgery wait list in Montreal
CTV
A family vacation in the Italian countryside quickly turned into a nightmare for Maggie Dunphy after she crashed her rented Vespa in the middle of the road and shattered several bones. The Montreal resident says her nightmare was made worse, however, by Quebec's health-care system after returning home to get proper treatment.
A family vacation in the Italian countryside quickly turned into a nightmare for Maggie Dunphy after she crashed her rented Vespa in the middle of the road and shattered several bones.
The Montreal resident says her nightmare was made worse, however, by Quebec's health-care system after returning home to get proper treatment.
In total, she suffered a "severely" broken left shoulder, three broken ribs, a broken ankle and three broken toes. Doctors told her she needs metal plates to fix her shattered shoulder.
She expected to get surgery right away after booking a last-minute flight home and rushing to the Montreal General Hospital on July 23. Instead, she was sent home with a cast on her shoulder, given a limited amount of pain medication, and placed on a waiting list with no clear date yet for surgery.
"I don't sleep at all at nighttime. Excruciating pain. I can't lie down. I can't sit up, I can't do anything," Dunphy told CTV News on Thursday.
When she showed up at the hospital in San Gimignano, a medieval hill town in Italy's picturesque Tuscany region, the doctor put a cast on her elbow and offered to perform the necessary surgery in two or three days.
Dunphy declined because she said she felt she would be more comfortable getting the operation done at home in Montreal — a decision she now regrets.
