A Manitoba woman who finally received a desperately-needed knee replacement surgery after a six-year wait says a post-surgery infection has been left half-treated after she was told no open beds were available for her at Health Sciences Centre.
Roseanne Milburn, a 61-year-old Canadian Forces veteran, credits media attention for ending her wait for double knee replacement surgery. Her right knee was replaced in October, two months after the Free Press published a story on her plight.
She thought she was on the road to recovery until weeks of complications led to her admission to HSC with an infection Wednesday morning. After a surgeon removed dead skin on her knee, leaving a gaping wound, she was transferred to Concordia Hospital to have an orthopedic surgeon examine her. She told there she would be returned to HSC immediately to get a skin graft and muscle-transfer surgery.
Shortly after, she learned there was no longer a bed available for her at HSC, and she has been waiting at Concordia with a painful open wound since.
“I’ve been laying here ever since with an open wound that’s not wrapped properly,” she said from her bed at Concordia Friday.
“It has seeped, I’ve lost blood, for the last two days.”
Milburn was emotional while describing the last three days as agonizing — she is on constant painkillers, can’t eat full meals in case a bed quickly opens up for surgery, and hasn’t received any timeline as to when she will be able to get the procedure that would close the wound.
It feels like a cruel irony, she said, to wait so long for the procedure only to be tripped up yet again by hospital congestion.
“They shouldn’t have started cutting unless they knew there was a bed, because I wouldn’t be in this situation,” she said.
“I wouldn’t be laying here suffering. This is torture.”
Before she knew she wouldn’t be able to receive her treatment in full, Milburn spoke with the Free Press Wednesday crediting the NDP government for adding 800 additional hip and knee surgeries at Selkirk Regional Health Centre, an announcement made by Shared Health that day.
Dan Milburn, Roseanne’s husband, said that announcement rings hollow now.
“It’s a feeling of frustration when you see these big, smug (announcements), ‘Oh we’re going to boost this’… you can’t even fix the surgeries you already have,” he said.
A Shared Health spokesperson said the health authority had been in contact with the Milburns and acknowledged the transfer was “taking longer than we would like.”
”The patient is receiving ongoing care at another hospital while she awaits a transfer, and we are working to ensure this can happen as soon as possible,” the spokesperson said in an email.
“The patient is being followed closely by our care team and, once an appropriate bed is available, her transfer to HSC will occur immediately and her procedure will proceed.”
Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara said it will take time for the investments made by the province to improve waits for patients.
“This added capacity will make a difference — but it won’t fix the problem overnight,” Asagwara said in an email. “Years of cuts by the PCs to these services did significant damage. Fixing health care is going to take continued investments — in surgical beds, medical beds and staff — to help reduce wait times and get Manitobans connected to care as fast as possible.”
But the wait could have long-lasting consequences for the Milburns. The couple have already accepted that Roseanne will spend Christmas in bed, but there are fears that her knee being left open so long could cause further infection and delay her left-knee replacement even longer.
“It screws with people’s quality of life, and it’s very, very frustrating,” Dan said. “Sometimes I shake so badly, I’m mad. It’s just incredible that nobody wants to accept ownership of it.”
malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca
Malak Abas
Reporter
Malak Abas is a city reporter at the Free Press. Born and raised in Winnipeg’s North End, she led the campus paper at the University of Manitoba before joining the Free Press in 2020. Read more about Malak.
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