‘Fear’ and ‘panic’: stories inside Canada’s ERs

Front Burner

Today on Front Burner, as respiratory illnesses surge across the country, we hear stories from people who struggled to get care from an overloaded health-care system.

Three people, all wearing red plaid, hug and smile. The person in the middle is a young child.
Julia Murray, right, says she started to panic while trying to get care for her three-year-old son, Jack, when he got a high fever. (Submitted by Julia Murray)

Front Burner26:56‘Fear’ and ‘panic’: stories inside Canada’s ERs

A surge of respiratory illness is putting pressure on an already overloaded health-care system in many places across the country and making it even harder for many Canadians to get examined by their family doctors, at walk-in clinics and even in the emergency room. Today we’ll be hearing personal stories from people who say they’ve struggled to get timely access to the medical care they desperately needed.

Julia Murray is a mom in Conception Bay South in Newfoundland whose 3-year-old son Jack came down with an awful fever in early December. Bianca Gallant of Memramcook, New Brunswick, says she recently had a 14 hour wait in a Moncton ER that ended in her needing emergency surgery. 

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