Man waiting on standby for surgery faces daily fasting for nearly a week

John Holmes injured his pinky finger while trying to break a fall.

"It's broken in two places," he said, while looking at his cast which covers two fingers on his left hand.

It's affecting his normal routine, but more so than the 65-year-old salesman would like.

"I can't go to lunch with customers, I couldn't do things. I usually like my coffee in the mornings and things like that," he said.

Holmes has been on a day-to-day standby list for reconstructive surgery. At the hospital's request, he hasn't been eating any solid food from midnight every night, until he's called in the evening by scheduling staff to tell him if surgery is a go.

"I was fasting until 12 o'clock ‘til 6 o'clock on average each day," he said.

That's midnight until 6 p.m. - eighteen hours a day of just drinking clear fluids for six days straight.

The Winnipeg Regional Health Authority told CTV Winnipeg in a written statement: “The Winnipeg Regional Health Authority strives to ensure surgical candidates slated for surgery receive their surgery as planned. Emergent and urgent surgeries that are life threatening, however, are always prioritized ahead of less urgent procedures. This can sometimes mean less urgent surgeries need to be rescheduled, but they are rescheduled as soon as possible. We certainly recognize that having a surgery date postponed can be frustrating for patients and families which is why the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority strives to minimize the rescheduling of surgeries.”

Not good enough, said medical ethics professor Arthur Schafer.

"For some people, repeated fasting can be damaging to their health, but for everyone it's a pain in the bum," he said.

He wonders why there's so little flexibility in the system. Schafer said it should be possible for the WRHA to be organized enough to schedule surgeries on a specific day with eight hours’ notice for the patient.

"If that's the problem, then maybe we need more operating room time,” he said.

On Thursday, Holmes started eating solid food again, but only because his daily wait was over. He got a call from the WHRA at 10:00 a.m. saying his surgery has been scheduled for Friday afternoon at 1:00 p.m.

"The annoying part with all that is they gave me 26 hours notice today. Why was I doing fasting for 18 hours a day for six days?” he said, ”I just think there's something wrong with the system."

Professor Schafer agrees. He said he would like to see some comparative research done with other provinces, which could show what's wrong here and how other hospitals are dealing with the issue.