Giving up on B.C. health care: Why a Port Alberni man went to Mexico for surgery
CTV
Bruce Gordon got tired of waiting years for knee replacement surgery in B.C. – so he went to Puerto Vallarta and paid for the procedure himself.
He got tired of waiting years for knee replacement surgery in B.C.
So Bruce Gordon went to Puerto Vallarta and paid for the procedure himself.
“My life has been mired in pessimism from what I was getting from the medical system here and I finally decided I was going to do this on my own,” the Port Alberni man said in an interview with CTV News.
He had the surgery in January, but just returned home last week.
“I’m without crutches now, I’m walking,” he said of his recovery.
Gordon, who has osteoarthritis in his joints, said his decision to seek out-of-country care comes after he endured a painful 2.5-year wait for hip surgery back in 2015.
“Severe pain is a horrible thing to experience," he said. "Then the Band-Aid was putting me on hydromorphone for two years, which caused me a great deal of problems going off it."
