Gaye Horn says she’s been a Liberal most of her adult life, but she turned to the NDP to speak for her in the B.C. Legislature about her husband Lee’s three year wait in excruciating pain for hip surgery. She says the health system is failing – it’s not just about Lee, but about the many others who endure long waits in pain for their surgery. Lee finally has a surgery date next week. (Richard McGuire file photo)
An Osoyoos man, who has been living in excruciating pain for nearly three years awaiting a hip replacement, is hoping to go into the operating room next week.
Lee Horn, 73, is a private man who doesn’t like to draw attention to himself, but last month his wife Gaye had had enough.
When she went to the B.C. Legislature on Feb. 20, to draw attention to how B.C.’s healthcare system had failed Lee, it was an act of desperation.
“We’ve lost six years,” she said referring to their ordeal. “Three of his and three of mine … I’m losing my best friend and I want my husband back.”
Gaye saw what was happening to her previously active husband as he spent his days confined to a chair, often going nights without sleep and suffering the effects of sleep deprivation.
“I just had enough,” she said explaining her decision to go public despite Lee’s hesitation. “I said to him, I’m going to do this with or without your approval. I’m a pretty big force to stop. He always says you can’t stop a moving train. So he knew by then I meant business.”
Gaye sat in the gallery of the B.C. Legislature Feb. 20 as NDP Health Critic Judy Darcy grilled B.C. Liberal Health Minister Terry Lake about whether he thought it acceptable that Lee had to wait almost three years in pain for his surgery.
Lake’s response was that the government is spending money on surgery, but has had to deal with a growing and aging population.
It didn’t satisfy Gaye.
“That’s no different than he’s ever said,” she said, suggesting it has been his stock answer whenever he’s been questioned on surgery wait times.
Gaye had barely returned to Osoyoos from Victoria though when the Horns received a call informing them Lee had an appointment to see a cardiologist in Penticton in preparation for his surgery.
After more than 900 days of frustration, things were finally starting to move.
Although Gaye has no proof, she believes that her decision to go public about Lee’s long wait and suffering was what finally got the ball rolling.
Shortly afterwards, Lee went to Penticton again, this time to see an anesthesiologist and later a physiotherapist.
Things were happening.
But then the Horns got another call with good news and bad news. The good news was that he finally had a date for his surgery, March 28. The bad news was that it would be done in Kelowna instead of Penticton and he had to do his initial screening exams all over again in Kelowna.
“There’s a serious problem with this whole system,” said Gaye. “It’s broken.”
With a date finally set for next Tuesday, Lee has finally been able to see light at the end of a very long tunnel.
“He’s very optimistic,” Gaye said, adding he is now talking about things he wants to do after his surgery.
He’s even talking about a return trip to Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada and Arches National Park in Utah, two of Gaye’s favourite places, and where the Horns were on vacation before Lee’s hip pain immobilized him.
Although Gaye cited the figure of 903 days Lee has been waiting for his operation, he’s actually been in pain for longer.
Prior to April 2014, his pain was intermittent and had not been diagnosed.
The Horns tried both conventional and alternative medicine. He was told it was his back. They tried acupuncture, chiropractic, massage therapy, magnets and some highly unconventional therapies. The pain would go away for months only to return.
Lee has always done physical activities. He hiked, kayaked, gardened, bird watched and ran photography tours.
It was on a trip of hiking and birding in the Southwest United States over the winter of 2013-14 that the pain returned with a vengeance.
Lee had trouble driving their 40-foot recreational vehicle he was in so much pain. He refused to go to hospital in the U.S., but instead the couple headed home early.
“When we got home, when he was unhooking, I knew there was something desperately wrong,” said Gaye.
And then, in April 2014, they began their long ordeal with the B.C. healthcare system.
Gaye describes it: “Getting appointments, waiting for appointments, getting diagnostics, waiting for diagnostics, having a misdiagnosis made, having time wasted.”
One doctor suggested they pursue a private health care alternative.
“I said, if we mortgage the house we can, but we’re not rich people,” Gaye recalled. “That could cost me $45,000. We’ve worked and paid into this system all our lives thinking it’s going to be here for us.
“It bloody well is going to be here for us. I’m not going to a private clinic. I’m not going to India. I’m not going to Mexico. And I’m not going to the United States. This country is going to look after us here. Naïve maybe, but I’m a proud Canadian.”
Gaye said when she spoke to Darcy, she asked her to make sure that others also experiencing the failure of B.C.’s healthcare system be recognized in the Legislature along with her husband.
Gaye’s trip to the Legislature came about through her friend, Brenda Dorosz, best known for leading the fight to save Osoyoos Secondary School, who heard Lee’s story and took it to the provincial NDP.
“If it hadn’t been for Brenda Dorosz, none of this would have happened,” said Gaye, referring to the issue being raised in the Legislature. “I’m fierce, but I don’t even begin to compare to this young woman.”
Dorosz, who lost a bid for the NDP nomination in Boundary-Similakeen, has nonetheless made many contacts in Victoria. She’s also picked up the phone to people in the medical community trying to get action for Lee.
“The trip to Victoria was really an eye-opener,” said Gaye. “I’m not an NDP person. I’ve been a Liberal most of my adult life, but I’m not anymore. I can’t abide what the Liberals have done to this province in the last 16 years.”
She was impressed with the way the NDP treated her, even though she said she recognized they were playing politics.
“I didn’t know these people, but they showed me care and compassion as a complete stranger,” she said. “I’m not naïve. I know it’s an election year, but there’s real and there’s contrived. What I got was real. I had total strangers in tears.”
And since Gaye went public, she’s heard from about 15 others, including from Osoyoos and Oliver, who are in similar situations.
“It’s not just about Lee anymore,” said Gaye.
RICHARD McGUIRE
Osoyoos Times
