Megan's Letter to Dr. Bob Bell, CEO of the University Health Network

Dear Dr. Bell,

My name is Megan Ball and I used to work at the Family Health Centre at Toronto Western Hospital. My fiance, Craig Rigden recently sustained a self-inflicted boxer's fracture in a typical hand vs. wall incident. I am writing to ask you for your help in dealing with a situation of questionable care at Toronto Western Hospital.

After hearing of his time in the ER and how upset he was upon arriving home, I urged him to write a letter to Patient Relations (I had previous contact with Sharon Rogers from my time at TWH - I assumed this would go smoothly) describing the events so they could be made aware of the problem. However, we have both become very upset after a series of emails with Ms. Rogers which have only escalated my fiance's upset.

To describe the sequence of events in short, during his stint in the ER, he received no first aid (ice pack) for the obvious fracture, and while he had what I consider to be an acceptable wait time, the doctor's actions upon assessment were questionable. After a verbal altercation with the doctor, he was offered Oxycontin and Percocet. I have attached the original letter we sent to Sharon for your reference.

Patient Relations and Dr. Chopra reviewed the file determining the level of care was acceptable, but informed us that, "There is agreement and acknowledgement that oxycontin was not offered."

To me, this says that what Craig has said has happened, was a falsehood. Someone is lying, and I know it's not my fiance. If the Government of Canada trusted him to guard our borders, I don't see why he would lie about something as trivial as this.

When we wrote back, upset that Ms. Rogers had, in effect called my fiance a liar, we have now been told that , "[she] just re read [her] email; it was extremely clear and NOT the way that [I] describe[d] below. Perhaps this is another example of [my] and Craig's misinterpretation of things; please read again and call [her]." I'm sure you can understand why I have chosen not to call her back when any of our concerns are met with a wall like the one Craig hit on Thursday night.

We have asked for a fourth year medical student named Lance (dark hair, glasses, black cowboy boots) to be interviewed, as he was present when the offer was made. The other option would be checking to see if the student recording cameras were on at the time. Craig has indicated that if these cameras were running they will pick up Dr. Friedman's offer as clear as day.

The bottom line is we were only trying to bring attention to a potential problem in the Hospital and instead have been told we are liars. I'm sure you can understand our upset.

Please note, on a personal level, I really do not want to have to take this complaint any further than you, but as a Medical Secretary who works closely with doctors, I feel a great sense of responsibility to the Health Care System and will not let this fade away.

Please feel free to contact us by email, mail, or phone at your convenience.

Most Sincerely,

Megan Ball