A Magnetawan man is thanking a very good friend whose efforts, he said, got him the medical attention he needs to save his life.

Albert Harrison had been waiting for more than three months for heart surgery, which would then enable him to have his diseased bladder removed.

“I kept being told there wasn’t a bed in Toronto,” Harrison said.

Harrison’s problems began earlier this year. He had been undergoing treatment from Bracebridge specialist Dr. Anthony Drohomyrecky for  a bladder complaint for a couple of years, he said.

“Then in March things got worse and in April he sent me to Toronto General Hospital to have my bladder removed. It’s cancer and I was told it had to be removed as soon as possible.”

He continued: “When I got there they found my aortic valve wasn’t working, so they couldn’t do the operation.”

Harrison said he knew he had a heart murmur, which stemmed from a bout of rheumatic fever he had when he was nine years old. He had at one time seen a heart surgeon at the Newmarket hospital and knew an operation would be necessary at some point.

Harrison was sent home from Toronto to await his cardiac surgery. After an incident when he was having breathing problems, he was taken to the Burk’s Falls and District Health Centre and from there to Huntsville Hospital, he said.  As Burk’s Falls is closer to his home, Harrison was re-admitted there, but when another attack occurred, he was sent back to Huntsville.

“They decided I should stay in Huntsville Hospital because I was having breathing problems and every few days I needed a breath of fresh air,” he said.

That was in May, and for the next couple of months Harrison waited for a bed to become available in Toronto. Every day the answer was the same. Nothing available, he said.

Meanwhile, Harrison’s close friend Louis Vandermeer, a former resident of Magnetawan  who now lives in Blind River, became so upset that his friend wasn’t getting the attention he felt he deserved, that he decided to do something about it.

“I finally called everyone I could think of to try and find out what was going on,” he said. “I called the Burk’s Falls Hospital, then Huntsville Hospital and I got through to the nurses’ station. They said they call every day and every day they are told there is no space.”

Vandermeer then called MPP for Parry Sound Muskoka Norm Miller’s office and was told there was nothing they could do. He called Premier Dalton McGuinty’s office.

“They also said there was nothing they could do, but they transferred me to the Ministry of Health. There I was told the matter would be looked into, but they made no promises.”

Realizing he wasn’t getting anywhere, Vandermeer finally tried MP for Parry Sound Muskoka and minister of health Tony Clement’s office. “But I was told it was a provincial matter and there was nothing they could do.”

 All his telephone calls were made on Thursday, July 24, said Vandermeer. “Then lo and behold on July 26, Albert was on his way to Toronto General Hospital.”

Neither Vandermeer or Harrison believe the timing was a coincidence. “Up until the hours Louis started phoning around nothing seemed to be happening. A coincidence? I think not,” said Harrison.

Asked about Morrison’s predicament, Muskoka Algonquin Healthcare CEO Barry Lockhart said he could not comment on a specific individual, citing confidentiality issues.

“However, I would re-assure anyone that anytime there is a need for the transfer of a patient to another facility that we do an ongoing follow-up with that facility,” he said, adding that includes transfers out-of-country if necessary.

“I know staff and the attending physicians follow up to ensure people have not fallen through the cracks. We make every effort to ensure people receive timely services.”

Asked if he considered three months to be an unconscionable time to wait, Lockhart said in dealing with large referral centres such as Toronto, Huntsville may have one patient on the waiting list, but there could be 15 others waiting  at other centres.

“They (referral centre) have the information, they set priorities and that’s one reason to be in contact with that centre to apprise them if (a patient’s) condition changes to move them up or down the priority list,” he said.

Harrison said he had heard  there had been confusion as to which medical centre he was to be transferred.

“Toronto thought I was going to Newmarket and Newmarket thought I was going to Toronto. At one point each thought the other (hospital) had already done the operation.”

As to the coincidence of Harrison getting a bed so soon after his friend had made his calls, Lockhart said: “I would hope that good clinical decisions were being made, that a bed had became available and surgical time had become available.”

Meanwhile, Harrison is on the cardiac floor at Toronto General Hospital and still awaiting his heart operation.  

“Now they have found I have a kidney problem as well, so they are going to try and fix that first, then do the heart and then the bladder. They are still doing tests to make sure I’m up to the other tests they have to do.”

Harrison said the whole experience has got him down. “I don’t feel too bad, it’s more a mental thing, which is bringing down my physical health. But my surgeon says there’s hope, as I’m in reasonably good shape and I’m a fighter.”

Vandermeer said he is saddened by the stress his friend of 15 years has been under. “He is the type of man that if your car was broken and his was too, he would fix yours first. He’s a 76-year-old, hardworking, gentleman’s gentleman who lives alone. He doesn’t deserve this,” he said.