'Cybersecurity incident' shuts down London Drugs stores across Western Canada
All 79 locations of pharmacy and retail chain London Drugs were shut down Sunday after it was the victim of a “cybersecurity incident.”
Roy Dahl’s bags are packed at the door as he waits for a call that would save his life -- the news that after years of dialysis treatment, he will finally be receiving a kidney transplant.
Dahl is in end-stage kidney failure, and has been on a waiting list for transplant for seven years.
“It’ll save my life,” he told CTV News. “It will be like winning the lottery.”
But, like many people in Canada, Dahl is dealing with the added agony of a potential delay as the fifth wave of COVID-19 floods hospitals.
“I just got a call last week from the transplant co-ordinator saying: ‘You’re number one on the list, and you will get a kidney soon, but we just have to make accommodations for COVID-19 cases,’” Dahl said.
So close, yet so far away. Across the country, provinces have cancelled or delayed thousands of surgeries since the pandemic began.
“We only have capacity in the system for immediately life-threatening things,” Dr. Katharine Smart, president of the Canadian Medical Association, told CTV News.
There are no real short-term solutions to address the backlog.
“Things that are urgent, including kidney transplants, other organ transplants, some cancer surgeries are being delayed, and the impact on Canadians is huge,” Smart said.
The impact on Dahl is that he must go for dialysis three times a week for four-and-a-half hours each time.
The 61-year-old grandfather is Ojibway, and according to the Kidney Foundation of Canada, Indigenous people are more than three times more likely to have kidney failure than non-Indigenous people.
Complicating things is that those undergoing dialysis for kidney failure are at a higher risk than many groups when it comes to COVID-19.
One study from 2020 found that dialysis patients who contracted COVID-19 had a 20 to 30 per cent mortality rate.
If dialysis patients are receiving their dialysis treatment in a hospital or a dedicated centre outside of their home, they also risk exposure to the virus, due to the travel needed for multiple life-sustaining dialysis treatments per week.
For those with end-stage kidney failure, there is no cure. Those suffering from it have to go on dialysis either for the rest of their life, or until they can secure a kidney transplant.
When the time comes for Dahl to receive his new kidney, he will have to travel from Yellowknife to Edmonton for the procedure.
For now, all he can do is wait.
“I jump every time that phone rings,” Dahl said. “I keep hoping that it’s that call from the renal unit in Edmonton.”
Alberta Health Services said transplant services have continued during the pandemic, but added that some surgeries have been delayed by factors including whether critical care beds are available.
All 79 locations of pharmacy and retail chain London Drugs were shut down Sunday after it was the victim of a “cybersecurity incident.”
Three women diagnosed with HIV after getting 'vampire facial' procedures at an unlicensed medical spa are believed to be the first documented cases of people contracting the virus through a cosmetic procedure using needles.
Elias Lindholm scored 1:02 into overtime and the Vancouver Canucks came all the way back to beat the Nashville Predators 4-3 in Game 4 of their first-round playoff series on Sunday.
One person was killed in a six-vehicle crash on Highway 400 in Innisfil Friday evening.
Aerial photos posted by Chinese state media on Sunday showed wide devastation in part of the southern city of Guangzhou after a tornado swept through the day before, killing five people, injuring dozens others and damaging more than 140 buildings.
Ontario is introducing a suite of measures that will crack down on cellphone use and vaping in schools.
Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Monday described domestic violence as a 'national crisis' after thousands rallied around the country against violence toward women.
Rookie goalie Arturs Silovs will start in net for the Vancouver Canucks when they face the Nashville Predators in Game 4 of their first-round playoff series Sunday.
U.S. intelligence officials have determined that Russian President Vladimir Putin likely didn't order the death of imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny in February, according to an official familiar with the determination.
The lawyer for a residential school survivor leading a proposed class-action defamation lawsuit against the Catholic Church over residential schools says the court action is a last resort.
Raneem, 10, lives with a neurological condition and liver disease and needs Cholbam, a medication, for a longer and healthier life.
As if a 4-0 Edmonton Oilers lead in Game 1 of their playoff series with the Los Angeles Kings wasn't good enough, what was announced at Rogers Place during the next TV timeout nearly blew the roof off the downtown arena.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.
A property tax bill is perplexing a small townhouse community in Fergus, Ont.
When identical twin sisters Kim and Michelle Krezonoski were invited to compete against some of the world’s most elite female runners at last week’s Boston Marathon, they were in disbelief.
The giant stone statues guarding the Lions Gate Bridge have been dressed in custom Vancouver Canucks jerseys as the NHL playoffs get underway.
A local Oilers fan is hoping to see his team cut through the postseason, so he can cut his hair.
A family from Laval, Que. is looking for answers... and their father's body. He died on vacation in Cuba and authorities sent someone else's body back to Canada.