Woman speaks out after 'excruciating' procedure at Brampton hospital, says details not properly communicated

A Caledon, Ont., woman is seeking accountability after undergoing the "most excruciating" experience of her life at Brampton Civic Hospital. 

Terri-Ann Perras, 33, said she received no sedation or pain medication before the procedure, in which she was given a ureteral stent to help treat a kidney stone. A ureteral stent is a thin tube used to help urine pass from the kidneys to the bladder.

The pain she experienced was like nothing she had ever felt before, she said. 

"I describe it as, quite literally,  the most barbaric thing I've ever been through," Perras told CBC Toronto. "I have laboured and birthed four children … I know what pain feels like, but this was something that I could have never even imagined in my lifetime."

Perras was admitted to the hospital a few days before the procedure for kidney stone pain. After speaking with a urologist, it was decided she would receive a kidney stent to help manage the pain while she waited for an operation to remove the stone.

Perras said the doctor treating her told her she would be given anesthetic or pain medication, but that didn't happen.

Another doctor performed the procedure and later told her the process typically doesn't involve anesthetic, she said.

Perras told CBC Toronto the details of the procedure weren't fully communicated to her ahead of time. As a result, she says, she was not able to give informed consent for the treatment, despite signing a hospital consent form.

Perras said she was handed the consent form moments before the procedure and signed without reading it. In hindsight, she wishes she brought her husband to advocate for her, but says he was at home with their children.

"That was probably the biggest mistake I ever made," she said. "I couldn't even tell you what that form said …I literally felt incapacitated at that moment. I had no idea what was going on."

Now, Perras wants the hospital to take accountability for what happened.

An email response to CBC Toronto from William Osler Health System — a hospital system that includes Brampton Civic Hospital — said, "We strive to deliver safe and compassionate care for every patient we treat."

The hospital declined to comment on Perras's case citing patient privacy but assured that they offer "a timely and comprehensive patient relations process for addressing concerns and offering support."

Dr. Rob Robson, a patient safety scientist and physician, says proper consent is integral in health-care settings and is a much more involved process than simply signing a form.