How can i start? The truth. Im an ex heroin addict and a paranoid schizophrenic. I had gone 7 times about my left arm. Two decembers ago i fell on ice on my stairs onto my arm really hard. They detected a shattered rotator cuff. They told me without my even asking that no opiate painkillers would be made available to me. I said i didnt ask for that, i asked for physiotherapy. They gave me a pamphlet of therapeutic exercises i cpuld try, along with an injection of Naproxyn. X-rays revealed nothing when i returned seven months later with the complaint that the pain had worsened and had traveled down my arm. They gave me a shot of anti inflamatory and sent me home. I went back again three months later. The pain had become unbearable. My quality of life right now is terrible. I have to take 8 tylenol and ibuprofen just to get into the bath tub, and my wife has to wash me. I cannot exercise, which was a major part of my life, i can no longer play the guitar-which i lived for. I wake up just by my arm moving in the middle of the night, and ill yell out in pain. The pain is excruciating all the time, and they have me marked down as a drug seeker on my file at the hospital. Ive had to call V-tac, looking to get a physical examination. Theres a muscle out of place in my arm, and if i move my thumb the pain is unreal, and my muscle cracks and pops loudly.
Then a day came when my methadone dose didnt work…i got sicker and sicker, and i was forced to drink the next days methadone. I explained to my methadone doctor i did this because my dose was not working. She told me to go to the hospital. They asked me if i was desperate, i said yes, my methadones not working. She asked me if i felt like doing anything rash, and i joked and said yeah, i kinda wanna knock over a pharmacy.. they asked me if i had any weapons, i said no, wait, well, just this little foot long baseball bat souvenir i use to open my sisters garage door. They called the police and told them i had a weapon and was going to rob a pharmacy. The nurse turned to continue typing and she actually had the ignorannce to ask “Mr Murray, what are the chances that you’ll attack me.” I fukn laughed, and i said yeah, we’re done here. They will not do abnything at the Renfrew hospital, so my nurse is going to take me to other hospitals until someone listens. They are perfunctorily prejudiced, unproffessional-the doctor i saw refused to identify herself…REFUSED. My psychiatrist was horrified at their behaviour, and he said i shouldnt have had to go back on methadone when id been clean for four years from drugs, he said the pain im in i should be on an opiate painkiller. Im actually one of the people its meant for. I guess its alright for the doctors and staff at the hospital, because its not happening to them. They dont have to live crippled from pain. Im obviously just a drug seeker. Yeah, thats their great idea. I would avoid this hospital at all costs from here on in. Theres clinical detachment and theres sadism. I watched and listened to this guy next to me sound like he was dying from the pain of a migraine. They gave him two pain pills…he settled a bit, but then the pain ramped up again. He screamed for hours begging for one more pain pill, and they smiled when they said no. Im not ok with letting human beings be in huge pain when it can be easily stopped. Hearing him suffer really bothered me.
I tried to off myself some time ago. I drank three huge economisize Benylin cough syrup…nearly died and woke up there.
No one talked to me, no pamphlet, no why did you do this, or dont do it again, no nothing, just, you can go now.
They treated me like i was an already dead addict there was no point in helping. No talk of counseling..nothing. I know im a rough street character, and i dont fit in in a small town, but i thought i deserved better than that. The end result is that i will probably go back to heroin, since they will not give me pain medication i need. I didnt fall through the cracks of the system, i was packed into a sub-class of people they treat like unwanted cattle that they created with their drug seeking label. Ironic. I got my habit to opiates through the recklessness of medical authority in the first place, over prescribing me for long periods of time. Breakers and libertine reinterpreters of the Hypocratic oath, from my abode of pain i stab at thee.

I’ve had the displeasure of their emerg. dept. twice now in a dozen years. The first time they completely missed a diagnosis that landed me in emergency surgery 4 days later at a different hospital thank God. The second time was recently. Had chest pain and problems breathing while at work. I was just going to leave it and see if I felt better since a hospital during a pandemic is the last place on earth I want to be. A co-worker suggested going in just to be safe and I reluctantly agreed and went in the following day. Firstly, when they took my PB they pumped it up so high I thought my hand was going to drop off – the pain was severe and despite bringing this to the nurses attention – she did it again 3 more times just as high. I also spoke with the doctor who was attending and twice she asked me questions but did not wait for an answer. The first one she cut me off in mid sentence and the second she just didn’t wait for an answer at all. I was sent for a stress test 2 days later during which time the MD present actually stated that “…perhaps my employer was merely trying to condition me.” He also said that the results from the stress test and a subsequent ultrasound would be sent to the Ottawa heart institute and that he would get back to me with the results. This was over a week ago and no word from anyone – so I presume everything is ok. I’m really happy that my heart is apparently not the problem, but I still have symptoms which remain unexplained and they are not interested in looking into. I don’t trust them.

I have lived in Renfrew since early 1999 and have many visits to this hospital. For 4 years, I didn’t have a family Dr, and so my only option for care was the emergency department. The longest wait I ever experienced was 7 hours, but I would like to recognize that no less than 5 patients arrived by ambulance during that time, and I was very low on the triage priority list. I can think of only 3 times that I was unsatisfied with my care, and they were all with the same Dr. In 2018 I had extra experiences with RVH as my Father’s health failed, and ultimately he passed away in their care. They took excellent care of him, and while I may have had personality clashes with the odd nurse I am left with very little to complain about. They do have their limitations in the way of facilities it’s true, but for a small rural hospital they have much to offer. I have certainly been in other rural hospitals that were much dirtier, had horrible staff that made my family feel like a chore, and has fewer care services available. I feel blessed to have such a great medical facility so close by!