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“At what age are we considered no longer of any value to society?” asks Trail Times reader

Letter to the Editor from Sharon (Connell) Parker of Montrose
16084796_web1_LetterEditor-copy
Letters can be submitted to editor@trailtimes.ca, please note that certain guidelines apply.

I just read the article on the front page about Rina Visintini’s experience at the Trail Regional Hospital (“Year-long journey ends with widow’s voice being heard by Interior Health” Trail Times, March 22).

Story here: Rina’s journey

It brought back memories of what my family experienced in April of 2017 when my Dad, Alex Connell fell and broke his hip. He was 93 years old at the time. We were told in the emergency room that he would succumb to his injuries. He had also hit his head.

The doctor that we spoke to a day later said that there was no need to repair his hip because he would get pneumonia and they would not bother to treat the pneumonia and he would die. The doctor also said as we were standing outside my dads hospital room that he was 93 years old and most people had taken their last breath by then. I was speechless and said nothing.

My Dad did not get pneumonia and he laid in bed with a broken hip for 2 weeks on morphine and ended up with delirium . When my Dad’s regular doctor came back from holiday I was called and was told by him that their was no reason that the hip could not be repaired and the surgery was scheduled.

He survived the surgery and lived for 5 more months and was finally able to get out of bed, sit in a wheelchair and go outside and have some quality of life.

Any elderly person does not deserve to be treated with such disrespect just because of their age. These people have a history and are loved and cherished by their families. Losing a loved one is difficult enough without watching them suffer needlessly. I have to add that within 1 week of his hip surgery he was no longer in pain and there was no need for pain killers.

The attitude of the medical profession to the elderly must change.

I have just reached my 65th birthday. At what age are we considered no longer of any value to society?

Sharon (Connell) Parker

Montrose