Sask. woman says boyfriend removed surgical screw poking out of her head after doctor didn't believe her
CBC
Stephanie Faure knew something was wrong when she woke up feeling pressure in her head.
Surgeons had opened up her skull 14 months earlier to remove brain tumours. They performed a craniotomy that left her with a metal plate, screws and a scar.
So when she looked more closely at her head on Sunday and saw what looked like a screw pushing out through her skin, she decided to go to the hospital.
She said she waited five and a half hours at Royal University Hospital in Saskatoon. When she finally got to see a doctor, she said he told her it wasn't a screw and that it was a cyst.
"He wasn't even looking at it," Faure told CBC News, standing outside the hospital entrance on Monday. "You could pretty visibly see what it was. And he was just telling me it wasn't what I was seeing."
She said she asked to get a second opinion from another doctor or nurse, but was told "No," and was asked to leave.
"He said he had other people to help," she said.
Faure went home, and that night her boyfriend used a pair of tweezers to pull the screw out.
"It definitely wanted to come out," she said, almost laughing. "It was moving as the day went, so it wasn't too hard [to remove] by that time."
She showed CBC News the screw — a tiny, silver screw, smaller than a thumbnail — the kind that holds a titanium plate to a human skull.
Faure still has brain cancer. She's not in active chemotherapy, but takes medication daily.
She's had a lot of experience with the health-care system and has felt dismissed by doctors before, but Faure said this was more frustrating because of how "very clearly" she knew what was happening but the doctor didn't believe her.
In a statement, the Saskatchewan Health Authority said it takes concerns about patient experiences and interactions seriously. It directed patients with complaints to its client concern specialists process.
The statement said the health authority could not comment on specific cases due to privacy legislation. No one was made available for an interview.
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Stephanie Faure knew something was wrong when she woke up feeling pressure in her head.
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