SA Health apologises to man waiting nine days at RAH for broken leg surgery
SA Health has apologised to a Port Lincoln man left waiting for nine days for surgery on his broken leg at the Royal Adelaide Hospital.
Stephen Rees, a father of two toddlers, was airlifted from Port Lincoln on the Eyre Peninsula to the RAH on May 4 after shattering bones in his lower leg and severely dislocating his ankle in a football game the day before.
Central Adelaide Local Health Network's executive director of operations and performance, Rachael Kay, said the medical team had assessed his injury each day and "determined that he was clinically ready for surgery on Friday, May 9".
"I would like to apologise to Mr Rees and understand this must be frustrating."
Mr Rees said he had fasted each morning and sometimes all day in preparation for surgery but was bumped each time by a more urgent case.
"[I'm] fed up — I just want to get home and see my family," he said.
After a nine-day wait, Mr Rees was wheeled in for surgery on Tuesday morning and the operation went well.
The day before, Mr Rees was told the RAH was looking into having him transferred to a private hospital for the operation, where he understood it would be paid for by the public health system.
Prior to this, Mr Rees' family had been making enquiries about getting the surgery done privately despite him not having private cover just to get him home.
"Other than that, my options were to sit here and wait.
"I've just sort of had enough … they kept just bumping me and saying there's other more important cases than me even though I've been here for over a week."
Mr Rees said his two legs bones needed to be screwed back together because they were separated.
"The small bone in my leg is shattered, essentially, so they need to piece it back together and [put in] a couple of plates and a heap of screws," he said.
Mr Rees said one of the nurses had advised him generally, after three days, a patient's case was escalated to improve the chances of surgery.
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