Man with severed fingers waits days for surgery

A Dryden man wants to know why he spent three days on a stretcher at Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre waiting for surgery.

Fred Sombrutski seriously injured his fingers, but said his surgeon couldn't get an operating room.

While cutting wood with his table saw, Sombrutskis index finger was almost severed and two more fingers were badly cut.

A doctor in Dryden put in temporary stitches and sent Sombrutski to Thunder Bay for plastic surgery.

He showed up at the regional hospital for his operation on a Tuesday morning but, about 10 hours later, staff told him to go home and come back in the morning.

The same thing happened the next day and the day after.

Sombrutski said his surgeon was unable to get an operating room until the fourth day.

When he finally had the procedure, he was kept in hospital for two more days because his fingers were infected.

Sombrutski said there's a reason he's speaking out.

I hope that ... [this] will help other people so they don't have to wait that long.

Thunder Bay hospital spokesperson Dr. Gordon Porter said he can't comment on any specific patient's case, but said the hospital's operating rooms are running as they should.

They are booked .... with a priority scale ... based on timing of the bookings and the urgency of the bookings, he said. And they're fully staffed both with the nurse quotas, as well as anesthesia.

Porter says during the time period in question, there were many patients urgently needing surgery.