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Dauphin senior Larry Artibese, 85, has been driving hours every week to visit his wife in a hospital in Deloraine, Man.
His wife, Adie, was moved there after the Dauphin Regional Health Centre was evacuated on July 1 amid heavy rains, as water poured into the basement and knocked out power. Adie, 86, was there recovering from a broken hip.
It takes Artibese about four hours each way to drive from his home to Deloraine, about 220 kilometres south of Dauphin, to keep her company once a week.
“She’s very lonely,” he said in an interview on CBC’s radio program, Up to Speed, on Wednesday afternoon.
Until Wednesday, there was another patient in Adie’s room, who she knows from Dauphin, but that person has since moved to a different hospital for physiotherapy.
“It’s going to be tough for the next month or six weeks because she’s going to be alone,” Artibese said of his wife.
A memo issued to staff about a week after the storm, signed by Prairie Mountain Health CEO Treena Slate, said it damaged critical infrastructure in the Dauphin hospital’s basement and that “service disruptions will continue for several months.”
A room used to store supplies and other materials at Dauphin’s hospital. (Prairie Mountain Health)
In the latest update on the hospital, the health authority said Wednesday that onsite assessments are ongoing to assess the full extent of the damage and that timelines are expected to be finalized over the next few weeks. The health authority also released photos showing the damage.
Evacuated patients were moved to health centres across Manitoba, with most going to Brandon Regional Health Centre.
Prairie Mountain Health says it has increased the hours of operation at both the Ste. Rose and Grandview emergency departments and expanded other medical services in and around Dauphin.
Kimberley Shanowsky’s father, Robert Found, was evacuated to a health centre in Treherne, Man., after Dauphin’s hospital closed. His wife, Shirley Found, hasn’t been able to visit him as she did in Dauphin’s hospital, as seen here. (Submitted by Kimberley Shanowsky)
Artibese and other families affected by the Dauphin hospital closure are frustrated by the lack of communication and the sudden distances between them and their loved ones.
Kimberley Shanowsky’s father, Robert Found, was first admitted to the Dauphin hospital in late May. Her family got a call while they were dealing with flooding in their home saying her dad was being moved to Treherne, roughly 200 kilometres southeast of Dauphin.
Shanowsky says it’s been very difficult for her family, especially her mother, Shirley Found, who often has trouble hearing her dad over the phone.
“My mom is 88 years old. So, she said that that’s just too much of a drive for her. So, we’ve gone from being able to go and visit my dad every day in Dauphin here to she hasn’t seen him since the end of June. So, it’s been a little frustrating and upsetting for her,” Shanowsky said.
She’d like to see something set up in Dauphin while the hospital repairs continue.
“I know it’s very frustrating for everybody. I know everybody’s working hard on trying to get everything up and running again…. It’s just really hard not having a hospital in town here for everybody,” Shanowsky said.
“It would be nice to have something or to hear of something getting set up for people because it is kind of scary to not have access to a hospital.”
That would certainly help Yvonne Geisel, whose 81-year-old husband was in the personal care home attached to Dauphin’s hospital and was regularly getting dialysis at the hospital.
Now, he has to get transported to Russell, Man., located about 95 kilometres southwest of Dauphin, three times a week to get dialysis.
A hallway at the Dauphin hospital with extensive flood damage. (Prairie Mountain Health)
“I’d like to see some temporary thing put in so they can stay here in their own community,” Geisel said.
Prairie Mountain Health says it is working with Shared Health and CancerCare Manitoba to secure an appropriate location to provide hemodialysis and chemotherapy treatments in Dauphin.
Artibese says what he’s most worried about is his wife’s recovery being delayed because she can’t get physiotherapy at Deloraine’s hospital.
“So, her recovery time is going to be very, very slow, and we would like to see her get moved to a facility where she could get some physiotherapy,” he said.
“We’ve been married 64 years, and the last eight weeks I’ve been alone. So, it’s not easy,” he said while fighting back tears.
“I’d just like her to come home.”