Letter: Lions Gate Hospital provided me with excellent care

Dear Editor:

It seems not a day goes by without a negative or even catastrophic health care story. While it is true that there are many issues to be addressed, I would like to share a tale of success that may remind you there are positives you don’t hear about because they don’t make the news.

I have lived a healthy active lifestyle since childhood and nurtured loving relationships along the way. My smartest decision was marrying Patricia. Next smartest was raising two boys with her. At the risk of bragging, I must say that they have grown into fine young men (not solely my opinion) who I am immensely proud of. My third best decision was to become a physician. I enjoyed the privilege of doctoring people in a family practice through both bad and good.

All was good until 2012. That was when I first noticed symptoms and signs that ultimately gave me a diagnosis of ALS. Average survival is two to five years, so I am clearly an outlier with very slow progression. Surprisingly, I have never been hospitalized with ALS, but that all changed this past Christmas. I found myself unable to settle in bed and my oxygen level was terrible. A 911 call led to LGH ER.

With a predetermined DNR in hand, assessments and decisions were required. It turned out that I had pneumonia and a bunch of fluid around my lung. This would be a serious diagnosis for anyone, but even more so on top of ALS with weakened breathing muscles. A further wrinkle in the story was that our boys were competing at an event in Europe. The decision was to treat me aggressively but short of intubation or CPR, the primary goal being to keep me alive until the boys could get home, the hope being that I would actually recover.

I spent about a week in a new acute care unit that is physically impressive, but the staff who work there are even more amazing. Because ALS has made my speech incomprehensible and I often wear a mask to assist my breathing, communication is a huge challenge. But not only was the medical care excellent, the staff also did all they could to understand my needs. They quickly learned that “yes” or “no” questions worked best.

When I was ready for transfer out, the nurses spent time creating a reference sheet of common questions and even laminated it for the next nursing unit. That was the palliative care floor. I spent a further week there winding down my pneumonia therapy, tuning up my mobility, and planning for new needs at home. Again the staff did everything they could to meet my needs. And the cheat sheet turned out to be quite useful. I made it home to my own bed on Jan. 10.

It would be inappropriate for me to name any of the people who cared for me. Truthfully, I don’t know all the names anyway, but they know who they are. I am immensely grateful to all of them for their commitment to their work and exercise of their skills to get me home. The cynics reading this will argue that I got special treatment being a doctor myself. I can’t deny that there may have been some of that, but I witnessed other patients receiving equivalent attention.

FYI: My mantra is PPT – Power of Positive Thinking.

Dr. Mark Seger
North Vancouver