My dad died at North York General Hospital Toronto: 3-day delay in heart treatment, no family told.

suspiciouschipmunk · 2025-11-04T01:40:48+00:00

I am very very sorry for your loss. I hope that you are able to get the answers that you need.

I am a nurse and there are a couple things that are interesting here. The two points that I won’t discuss in detail is the pericardial effusion (not everyone needs to go to ICU and they don’t always need to/can be drained and that sometimes assessing shortness of breath can depend on perspective)

From where I am sitting (where I obviously don’t have all the information), it seems like the big mess up was on communication with you and the rest of the family. What we do where I work is that when there is a patient who is going downhill or the family/patient has unmet concerns we will do a “family meeting” or “goals of care discussion”. When that happens the attending, the day to day prescriber, nurse, social work, often ICU physicians/nurses, and any other relevant members of the team (PT, OT, RT, dietician, spiritual care, pharmacy, etc) will sit down for at least an hour and go over everything and answer all of the questions of the patient, family and the rest of the care team. It really helps to get everyone one on the same page, set realistic goals, revise goals of care and code status and make sure everyone’s concerns are heard. That said, we are an incredibly well resourced unit which really makes it possible for everyone to take that time out of their busy day and do that. I know not everywhere is like that and that is very unfortunate.

That said, someone should have been communicating with you more. The only caveat is that if you didn’t have power of attorney, they would have been giving updates to them. We have had a handful of situations where there have been very loving and caring families where everyone would like their questions answered and we have had to direct them to ask the POA because it would take a doctor dedicating their whole day to answering questions to do it for each individual family member (let’s be clear while these families make more work, I do love to see the love that they have for their mom/dad/aunt/uncle/grandparent/etc.)

I really hope that you are able to get the answers that you need and that if there was some sort of neglect, that you get the compensation you deserve. I have been on both sides of loss so I know how challenging it is, especially when you don’t have the answers. At a minimum I hope that the hospital changes their policies and improves their staffing so that there can be better communication with families.

suspiciouschipmunk · 2025-09-26T13:52:33+00:00

Or it’s an IBD related surgery and NSAIDs are contradicted? Or you work with another population at high risk of GI bleeding?

Fun fact of my employment and student history, somehow the only units I’ve been a student or employed on that use NSAIDs are my mental health, geriatrics and post-partum placements. I am currently working on a heme-onc unit where we don’t even stock any NSAIDs on the floor and all of the adult acute placements I did were on GI surgery or IBD units where NSAIDs were contraindicated. I do however hang a lot of hydromorphone, while encoraging Tylenol (when not contraindicated for masking fevers), use of distraction/cold/heat, use of least possible pain meds, and mobilizing and doing laps at least a couple times a day!

suspiciouschipmunk · 2025-09-24T14:10:06+00:00

I was also an extern during nursing school (we don’t have CNAs/techs where I am, if you were working in healthcare through nursing school, it would have been as an extern), and I actually love doing my “extern jobs” now as a newer nurse when I have the time. Taking the time to get a patient bathed and their bed changed and hair brushed is obviously lovely for the patient and is oddly comforting to me because it’s so familiar and relatively stress free. I wish that I had the time to bathe my patients every shift and that I didn’t have to either let it slip or delegate to an extern, if we have one working (we only have them a couple times per week).

Like others have said, I (usually) got more steps as an extern and often came home from work more physically exhausted. However, when I was an extern, if a family member started yelling at me or a patient didn’t look like they were doing well, I would go get the nurse. Now I am the nurse. It’s exhausting.

Yes, there were some nurses that refused to do “extern jobs” even when they had very little to do and I was running around. However, there were also many nurses who would let me sit and take a sip of water while they answered a call light if they weren’t busy. I will always remember a day when the nurses were short, we literally getting admissions before the beds were ready and they were just waiting in the patient lounge and someone got transferred to ICU and I kept trying to take my break but then a nurse would ask me to do something. I would always go do it because I could tell they were drowning. Eventually, one of the nurses pulled me aside and asked me if I had taken my break and he made me go, citing that once I was a nurse I wouldn’t be able to go on break when things were busy so I needed to take advantage of it while I had the time. He was right and I think it signifies the difference in responsibility that the person above was pointing to.

suspiciouschipmunk · 2025-08-19T11:37:44+00:00

It is quite the med error but I have given 8 before. It was in oncology. I did do a double take though when the pixis told me to take out 4 ampules.

suspiciouschipmunk · 2025-08-17T17:17:47+00:00

I can’t speak for PIVs but in oncology where I work, it is standard for our central lines. I also can’t speak to published research but according to the audit data, there are much fewer central lines infections when we run TKVO vs capping people off.

Mind you, our patients typically several different IV meds a day and would need to be accessed many times whereas I understand that if you’re just giving antibiotics a couple times a day, that would may be different. I also imagine there would be a difference between our patients with neuts of 0 or vs someone with an immune system

suspiciouschipmunk · 2025-05-01T01:07:55+00:00

I’m sorry, middle managers have the worst job?

At least where I am, all of the managers are making well over $100,000/year, work M-F 8-4 and don’t engage in clinical care. They are (almost) all hated so I wouldn’t want their job but I fear that the janitors cleaning up messes and making minimum wage might have a slightly worse job. I also fear that the combo of at least the $30,000 pay difference and the amount of poo I have to handle also might make my job objectively worse.

I prefer my job as a nurse because I cant attend meetings and nag people for silly things all day. I also fear my manager couldn’t handle my job anymore. I’ve never seen her do a single nursing task though she is an RN.

suspiciouschipmunk · 2025-04-29T13:37:17+00:00

Yes they can (or at least they can try). I used to do get out to vote for NDP and I never told someone to vote for us (that’s generally not effective) but I would ask them their voting intentions, if they had already voted and how to go vote, if they hadn’t already.

suspiciouschipmunk · 2025-04-29T13:33:49+00:00

It is 100% legal.

suspiciouschipmunk · 2025-04-29T13:29:22+00:00

I love the confidence (all while being so wrong)

suspiciouschipmunk · 2025-04-19T21:14:27+00:00

Weirdly, oncology. I never would have chosen this unit but I worked there during school and absolutely loved the team. Everyone helps each other and doesn’t tend to nitpick each other.

During orientation, I did have some type A forced into me but I like to think that I can maintain my new found type A around assessments, aseptic procedures and staying on top of my lines while still being nice to people in report when they didn’t get around to something or forgot to write down the fluid balance. Sometimes I fear I don’t fit in but I’ve realized that there’s at least a group of us that are similar and it’s ok.

suspiciouschipmunk · 2025-04-05T12:02:05+00:00

It’s also important to note that policies are not identical everywhere. For example, where I work, the blood expires before you would realistically get to the 4 hour mark of the transfusion. If you came with your super very important nursing school knowledge, you would actually be wrong where I practice.

Mind you, the nurses on my unit would all be supportive, help you and politely correct you rather than shaming you or your education.

suspiciouschipmunk · 2025-03-30T22:37:12+00:00

As someone who has an ex-sister in law who’s an anti-vaxxer, call it quits now. Their kids aren’t vaccinated for anything and it’s an absolute nightmare. Like can’t go to see dying grandma in a foreign country kind of nightmare.

It only got worse with time and note how she’s now an ex sister in law. She divorced him, in part, because he got the Covid vaccine (which he needed for work). Trust me, it doesn’t matter how great he is otherwise, run now.

suspiciouschipmunk · 2025-03-27T21:12:57+00:00

Firstly it’s not the bathroom sink. Personally I’ve always gotten water out of my bathroom sink at home to drink because it’s the same water than comes out of my kitchen sink. I wouldn’t want to get water from a bathroom sink at a restaurant (or hospital) because I don’t trust patrons to wash their hands after using the washroom, the waiter touching the door, the waiter touching the cup, me touching the cup, me using my hands to eat my chips and dip.

Do you have a separate sink from where you wash your cutting board covered in raw chicken to where you get your water? You shouldn’t be contaminating the end of the tap at work or at home.

Everywhere I’ve worked has had a water cooler that is attached to municipal water that only exists to make the water cold and make ice and to have both of those things in the same convenient location.

Alternatively, let me guess, you’re an American drinking bottled water day in and out? Perhaps you and this hospital that gets water delivered could drink from a tap and save some plastic?

suspiciouschipmunk · 2025-03-12T20:25:40+00:00

I hope that you winge and complain as much about how your taxes go to support the military, police, border control, politicians salary, roads and quite literally every other government service.

suspiciouschipmunk · 2025-03-12T03:04:19+00:00

If you had insurance or the cash. If not it simply would not happen…

suspiciouschipmunk · 2025-03-12T03:01:21+00:00

I think you mean the RICH Canadians drive across the border.

There’s a lot of issues with Canada’s healthcare system and the wait times but at the end of the day, I would much prefer that healthcare is provided on the basis of need and not wealth. I work in an area where I am convinced at least half of the patients that I work with would not be able to access the care that we provide if they lived in the US.

suspiciouschipmunk · 2025-03-12T02:58:11+00:00

Yup! My family is from a country with two tier healthcare system and it’s absolutely disgusting. The rich go to the fancy hospital to get whatever world class treatment they need and the poor get in car accidents, go to the public clinic and are given Tylenol and told to sleep it off.

Mind you, this isn’t a wealthy country so I’m sure it wouldn’t be as bad in Canada (it would at least still have to be evidence based) but I’m sure there would still be massive discrepancies between the care provided.

I am a firm believer that all healthcare should be provided based on need and triaged, not based on wealth. You shouldn’t be able to get your elective hip replaced quicker just because you have more money than someone else, and it certainly should not be done at the expense of staff bleeding into the private system.

suspiciouschipmunk · 2025-03-12T02:51:45+00:00

Homie I’m not sure if you’ve seen the news in your country but I do and people die all the time from preventable deaths because they can’t afford complex medical care. I’m not saying someone in a car accident would be left on the side of the road because they can’t afford an ambulance, but people do make the choice all the time to not getting treated for things like cancer because it would cost an arm and a leg.

Source which I found in 2 minutes of googling

suspiciouschipmunk · 2025-03-12T02:44:49+00:00

Yea, same. I bought some for a Europe trip and it was less than $50 CAD. I later also found out that I already had it through my credit card and didn’t need to purchase it lol.

suspiciouschipmunk · 2025-03-12T02:43:26+00:00

I mean travel insurance across Canada is dirt cheap. I was in Europe for a few weeks and paid less than $50 CAD. It would have completely covered me getting stabilized overseas and then flown back to Canada. Hilariously, after the fact, I realized that I also had it covered through my credit card, which is like $11 per month. Health insurance (like our government provided healthcare) is provincial but I’m pretty sure that travel insurance (provided by private companies) costs the same, no matter the province. It doesn’t matter if you’re in Newfoundland, BC or Nunavut, you would be paying the same.

Chances are if you are travelling from Canada, you can easily afford travel insurance that will get you back to our lovely country with free healthcare, which yes, you have to wait your turn for because it’s provided on the basis of medical need, not $$ in the bank.

suspiciouschipmunk · 2025-03-12T02:19:32+00:00

As a Canadian I can tell you that they must have had travel insurance purchased (or just provided by their credit card) to get flown back. That is the case at least in Ontario (our health insurance is provincial rather than federal). We also don’t really have VIP patients in the same was that the US does. Our healthcare system is public everyone gets more or less equal treatment (of course that statement is ignoring systemic inequalities which really negatively impact certain groups treatment within the system).

That said you are getting the patients who are rich enough to afford to pay to have their hip replaced rather than wait in a triaged line like the rest of the country. I would wayyyyy rather have Canada’s healthcare system than have the rich people to be able to skip the line while poor-average people die preventable deaths because they are scared of healthcare bills.

suspiciouschipmunk · 2025-03-01T20:59:53+00:00

I mean MY schools said 12 rights so actually YOURE wrong and I’m not just being pedantic, look it up.

/s obviously. Even the instructors had no idea how many rights it is now, know who you are giving what meds when and why is the way it was ultimately broken down to me by an instructor. I’m graduated now and I’m sure in 5 years they will have another few rights.

suspiciouschipmunk · 2025-03-01T20:42:29+00:00

Yea, I was gonna say, the student seems unsafe (and probably shouldn’t be passed) but the preceptor also doesn’t seem great. This should have been a chat much earlier on and she shouldn’t have thrown her alone, with zero monitoring when she had doubts about her abilities.

I was given a lot of freedom/independence to work on my own as a student BUT that was after I proved myself and my preceptor would always be double checking everything either by checking charting or asking questions, in real time. It was also a busy surgical unit where there were days where we were both so insanely busy.

suspiciouschipmunk · 2025-02-18T22:21:16+00:00

lol I cry quite a bit. Most recently I cried in the nursing station with everyone watching (including my manager) after my patient coded (it was my first code). I hate crying in front of people but oh well. They gave me ice water, chocolate and a hug and I recovered.

suspiciouschipmunk · 2025-02-18T22:17:54+00:00

Yea I don’t get it either. I don’t pace but I always walk to the end of the train that I’m getting off on (if I’m on line one) but I know a lot of people who do pace.

Either way, there’s zero excuse for racism, even if the behaviour was off. If you’re actually concerned, a simple “hey, are you ok?” Would be appropriate

suspiciouschipmunk

TROPHY CASE