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The recent death of Ayla Loseth in Kelowna General Hospital after being mis-diagnosed in an overcrowded emergency ward has triggered bad memories for a woman who feared losing her husband – twice – due to overcrowding.

Ayla was initially diagnosed as suffering from the flu and sent home, only to die three days later from Strep A, according to her family.

READ MORE: Celebration of life for West Kelowna girl who died tragically

“I listened to the story of Ayla,” the woman told iNFOnews.ca. “Her parents have now lost a child. They should never had to have been in this position because of staffing. There is something seriously wrong in the staffing levels for ER and beds and availability to the most vulnerable.”

The woman did not want to be identified out of fear it would harm her husband’s business and her own employment but felt compelled to tell his story.

He’s a diabetic who, on the Labour Day long weekend in 2021, was taken to the Kelowna General Hospital emergency ward by ambulance.

He lingered in an emergency room bed for two days before there was room in the intensive care unit to get him the treatment for the potentially fatal ketoacidosis he was suffering. It was only then that he started recovering but was sent to a regular bed too soon, his wife said.

He fell out of that bed trying to go to the bathroom because there was no one to help. Others in the ward had to call the nurse to get him up off the floor.

“Luckily, he just had some scratches and bruises all over his back,” his wife said. “Nothing serious. He didn’t hit his head. But he could have.”

She reported the whole episode to the Patient Care Quality Office.

“I filed a full quality assurance report,” the woman said. “It took four or five months before they sent back their findings and said they would talk to this department head and this department head and look over this situation and they’re sorry. But, nothing else was done.”

A year later, her husband was taken to hospital again, this time spending four days in an emergency room bed.

Again, he was subject to falls and injuring himself because there was not enough staff available to help him.

“This is reality,” his wife said. “The hospital system is not functioning properly. They need to get people looked after in the community. They’ve got too many people going to these ERs that don’t really need urgent care or emergency care and the people who really do need it get sent home because they don’t have enough people to manage it.”

In the United Kingdom, she said, people are given support in the community so only get to go to hospital when it’s really necessary.

Her call for more home support may come to nothing because Interior Health is revising the way it schedules those workers.

READ MORE: Home support workers thrown into turmoil after scheduling changes by Interior Health

It argues that will help with staff retention and recruitment as well as providing better service to clients.

But some workers are telling iNFOnews.ca that they will quit their jobs rather than work under the new system.

“I think it’s really important people know that the staff who are there are wonderful,” the wife of the diabetic said. “There’s no problem with the staff. It’s the system. I think they need to look at the leadership.”

The best advice she can give for those in need is to advocate for the patient, to ask questions about treatment and stay with them as much as possible to offer what help they can.

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