{"id":529309,"date":"2026-03-11T14:55:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T14:55:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/529309\/"},"modified":"2026-03-11T14:55:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T14:55:14","slug":"felt-like-i-was-sent-home-to-die-patient-calls-out-er-turnover","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/529309\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Felt like I was sent home to die’: Patient calls out ER turnover"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hiatus hernia patient speaks out to say she experienced overcrowding, misdiagnosis, lack of care after being sent home without being helped<\/p>\n

Newmarket resident Catherine Douglas awoke Feb.9 with a terrible pain across her chest.<\/p>\n

Her ongoing hiatus hernia had flared up, bringing pain\u00a0that\u00a0she had ever felt before. A roommate called an ambulance for her, taking her to Southlake Health.<\/p>\n

While Douglas waited for care, she was shocked by the conditions she saw in Southlake\u2019s emergency room. She said she was unhappy with the care she received there, without a space to lie down, and then was misdiagnosed\u00a0and eventually left\u00a0to go home and persevere with\u00a0the flare-up.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone is saying how disgusted they are with what they\u2019re seeing,\u201d she said of the emergency room. \u201cI spent the next three days as an invalid \u2026 It was awful, it was so awful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Douglas is calling out the hospital for the state of its emergency department and the issues she experienced.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She described overcrowding and being startled seeing a continuous stream of sick people being escorted out by security, including herself, eventually.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have absolutely no trust in (Minister of Health) Sylvia Jones and this health-care system right now,\u201d she said. \u201c There are a lot of homeless people who I know who have been to Southlake, and they have been mistreated\u2026 There is no patient care.\u201d<\/p>\n

Southlake Health has been recognized by Newsweek<\/a> as among the world\u2019s best hospitals for the eighth year running, and among the top three community hospitals in Ontario for the past five years. But the hospital has faced challenges with overcrowding for years as the community grows, with long wait times for admission to the hospital and issues of overcrowding in the emergency department.<\/p>\n

The hospital recently completed an expansion<\/a> to its emergency department, though it is still working toward\u00a0a second hospital site to address the issue.<\/p>\n

Douglas said she felt as if the staff were short with her. She felt a need to lie down while in pain while waiting, but said there was no space available, and she was not allowed to lie on the floor.<\/p>\n

After some difficulty with tests, Douglas said she was told she had the flu and that she should \u201cgo home, take Advil, Tylenol.\u201d<\/p>\n

But\u00a0Douglas said\u00a0that was not her\u00a0ailment, it was an inflamed hiatus hernia was causing her difficulty, and she did not feel as if that was addressed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was no medical care being given,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was cataloguing people and throwing them on the streets.\u201d<\/p>\n

Southlake Health said it cannot comment on specific cases due to privacy concerns.<\/p>\n

\u201cPatient care remains Southlake’s top priority. Southlake\u2019s patient relations team continues to be available to address concerns and support resolutions through collaborative dialogue if a patient feels their experience did not meet expectations,\u201d the hospital said.<\/p>\n

Southlake\u2019s emergency department sees more than 120,000 visits each year, with a new patient arriving every four-and-a-half minutes on average. Patients come with a wide range of concerns and are seen, treated and discharged based on the urgency of their condition.<\/p>\n

After departing the hospital, Douglas said she managed her condition with her existing medication over a few days. She had difficulty swallowing, but managed to get it down. Her flare-up eventually cleared, and she made a recovery.<\/p>\n

Still, Douglas said she \u201cfelt like I was sent home to die.<\/p>\n

\u201cEmergency departments provide medical care,\u201d she said. \u201cThey need to provide medical care.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hiatus hernia patient speaks out to say she experienced overcrowding, misdiagnosis, lack of care after being sent home…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":529310,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[49,48,84,392,207819],"class_list":["post-529309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-newmarketpolitics-and-governmentsouthlake"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=529309"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529309\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/529310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=529309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=529309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=529309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}