"ER/Admitting at Foothills"

My loving wife of over 40 years first showed signs of cancer very early in 2025 with a focal seizure while exercising at the YMCA. Following private and AHS diagnostics in the 2 months following the seizure she started treatments for Stage 4 metastasized Melanoma in her brain and lungs.  The biggest concern was a large tumour in her right frontal brain lobe which resulted in loss of dexterity in her left (dominant) hand, seizures, nausea and headaches.

In early summer she suffered 4 small focal seizures in a period of 5 hours and upon the good advice of her oncologist Dr. Cheng, I drove her to Foothills emergency to see the neurologist on duty to determine the sudden onset of these multiple seizures. I was joined at that time by our son. Dr. Cheng had advised us that we should be able to move quickly through ER/Admissions as she had provided them prior notice of the situation. It did not work out that way. After considerable waiting and upon a polite inquiry, the admissions nurse at the ER front desk advised us somewhat unpleasantly that the notification from Dr Cheng was too vague and not in the precise language they required to skip the lengthy admitting time. We were very concerned that the SRS and immunotherapy treatments that she had received earlier were ineffective and the large tumour was still growing, and the needless 7 hour wait to clear ER was both physically and emotionally very uncomfortable.

Eventually we entered triage where a brain CT indicated that the tumour had not materially changed, and we were finally admitted to Arthur Child the next day. We then met with the neurologist, where new meds were prescribed for seizure control and increased dosages of another medication were administered to control the post SRS swelling of the large brain tumour. The care she received at Arthur Child then and on two subsequent occasions was excellent.

It was a very long 12 hour stay in ER/Admitting at Foothills ER and the first 7 hours were endured in order to have a necessary brain CT and a 30 minute appointment with a neurologist the following day to adjust her seizure medication. There was no other pathway available to secure an appointment with the neurologist in a timely way. It seems an unnecessary and wasteful process to endure a lengthy triage, expose an immune-compromised stage 4 cancer patient to hours of waiting room with many unhealthy patients; and significantly increase her pain, stress and fatigue levels. I feel alternatives could have included appointment based admitting to the expert or a triage staff that was more responsive to the request from Dr Cheng.

My wife passed peacefully by MAID in summer of 2025 and my anger about how I believe she was callously mistreated has partially subsided but I see a need for a clear path to bypass the chaos in ER and go directly to where expert help is waiting.

I am seeking a collaborate solution to the problem of needless ER protocols and procedures when expert help is standing by waiting behind closed doors so that future patients do not need to suffer needlessly in this manner.