Saskatoon cancer patient says he endured 6 days in chaotic ER hallway

A Saskatoon family wants the people in charge of Saskatchewan hospitals to stay in one for a few sleepless nights to fully understand what a loved one endured while stuck in a bed in a busy emergency department hallway.

Lloyd Coakwell, 74, has a rare bone marrow cancer called myelofibrosis. Last month, he went to Royal University Hospital with a severe ear infection.

He spent the next six days in a bed in the emergency department’s chaotic hallway. There was no privacy and he slept restlessly under bright lights and across from a room where the hospital stores dirty laundry.

Already dealing with cancer and a serious infection, Lloyd struggled to maintain his mental health and the family suffered watching it, said his wife Marilyn Coakwell. 

“How can you heal?” Marilyn said in an interview at her home. “How can you possibly heal physically and mentally? You don't. It breaks you.”

On Wednesday, the Coakwell family and the Opposition NDP held a news conference to push for action from health officials. Marilyn challenged Health Minister Jeremy Cockrill and Saskatchewan Health Authority executives to spend a few nights in a hallway hospital bed.

“You need to experience it,” she said.

“I'm not seeing a whole lot of empathy and the only way you could really, truly understand it is if you were in there," she said. "Unless you're willing to put yourself in that position…"

“They won't,” Lloyd said.

The CBC requested an interview from the Saskatchewan Health Authority and was sent a statement, which acknowledged that “capacity pressures create a difficult environment for patients who are seeking care” at hospital emergency departments.

“We regret that these pressures have resulted in a difficult experience for this patient during an already challenging time, and we would welcome the opportunity to meet with this patient to better understand and learn from their experience,” the SHA said in the statement.

The SHA said “enhancements” are coming to improve ER wait times and it will add 109 acute care inpatient beds at City Hospital over the next year.

NDP Opposition health critic Keith Jorgenson said overcrowding is happening because hospitals are “clogged up” with former acute care patients waiting to move into long-term care or rehabilitation.

He said the province should open City Hospital’s emergency room 24 hours a day to ease pressure on the other two hospitals.