Berni Wood was in the throes of a COVID-19 infection and was struggling to breathe when she was told she would have to wait upwards of 20 hours in a Prince Edward Island emergency room to receive medical care.
The Charlottetown resident tested positive for the coronavirus just before the July 1 long weekend, and a few days into her illness, she began wheezing and couldn’t breathe.
When she arrived by ambulance at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) in Charlottetown — P.E.I.’s largest hospital — paramedics had planned to take her into a back room, as she was sick with COVID-19. But there was no room. So she was told to sit in the main waiting room. It was crammed with people.
She sat down next to a woman who believed she’d had a stroke. Nearby was a man with pains in his chest.
“I’m sitting around with all these people knowing I am COVID positive, and that really concerned me,” she said.
After three hours, Wood asked a nurse how much longer she would have to wait.
“I was quickly told that the wait would be probably 16 to 20 hours or longer.”
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