Winnipeg man needs liver transplant, partner worries amid health care woes

Manitoba’s uphill battle with health care continues, slowing wearing out many tangled in the system.

Lisa Fiwchuk is one of those people, after her partner of 11 years, Craig Schaefer, was told he needed a liver transplant just over one year ago.

“It was hard. I didn’t know how to process it. There was a lot of just sitting in the car after getting home and just sitting like, ‘What? What do we do? What I don’t understand. I don’t know the steps,’” she said.

Schaefer is at the top of the transplant list, and needs a liver from someone with type O blood.

While he has had rare opportunities for the procedure, Fiwchuk says they’ve always fallen through — most recently due to Schaefer falling while at Winnipeg’s Grace Hospital.

“He falls. He’s confused. He’s incontinent. He wanders away. He’ll wander away in a vehicle,” she said.

“I’m scared for him. Every time he falls, there’s a chance of infection. There’s a chance of a head injury. And every time that happens, he gets taken off the list temporarily until he’s cleared and then back on again. He doesn’t have a lot of time. There’s not a lot of livers out there for people”

Even so, she was told he may be sent home, without access to 24-hour care.

Fiwchuk is distressed, and said she isn’t in a position to care for Schaefer whose health is rapidly deteriorating.

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“His liver does doesn’t filter out (the toxins) in his brain right now, and so he has symptoms of dementia,” she said.

Symptoms that have gotten the beloved former Purolator employee into dangerous situations, causing more delays.

“How can you discharge a person who has had falls in the hospital? …I mean, when he wants to get going, he gets going. He’s wearing a wander guard bracelet because he’s escaped many times from care from different hospitals around the city,” Fiwchuk said.

Yet, she said she doesn’t blame the hospital or staff.

“There are no beds. No 24-hour beds available. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. But he needs one. And I know somebody needs his bed that he’s in now, I know that. And I want that person to have a bed, and I want (Schaefer) to have the 24-hour bed, and I want all other people that need his bed and 24-hour beds to have them,” she said.

“I don’t know what to do. I don’t have the power to open beds and hire more nurses. I don’t know what the answer is.”

But she said she knows, without one, he isn’t safe. So a transplant may be harder to secure, leaving his life at stake.

“There’s nothing more that I want than to have him with me, but I can’t take care of him,” she said.

An emailed statement from the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority said “if the patient’s acute medical needs are met and they are discharged home, a case coordinator will provide an assessment to ensure the appropriate level of home care services are provided, which includes safety risks when there is no worker present. Anyone living in the community can also contact the Home Care central Intake Line and request Home Care assessment.”

It added, “while we are very limited in what we can comment on in individual cases, we can confirm that the care team at Grace Hospital is aware and sensitive to the concerns raised by the patient’s caregivers in this situation. The care team continues to have conversations with caregivers on confirming a safe and sustainable plan moving forward.”

In the meantime, Fiwchuk is exhausted, missing the man she met 11 years ago.

“He’s struggled medically for a long, long time with his Crohn’s (Disease). He shouldn’t even be alive right now with his illness. But he fought hard. He fought alone until we found each other. He loves the people at his work, his customers that he sees every day. He still talks about them. He hasn’t worked for quite a while, but he misses them.” she said.

“He’s incredible. He’s plays guitar, he sings — he’s got a beautiful, beautiful voice. He hasn’t played for so long because of his tremors in his hands and his voice is gone. He can’t sing, but he’s got a beautiful voice. I want him to play again.”

Knowing who he is, she presses on.

“He’s quietly strong. I know he wouldn’t want me doing this for him, but I know he’d do it for me, and he’d do it ten times harder for me. And he’d do it for anybody else,” Fiwchuk said, with her resolve to advocate for those in similar situations, growing.

“If you’re seen by a doctor, and you’re in the hospital, then that should be enough. Somebody else shouldn’t have to come and fight to keep you alive or to keep you cared for,” she said. “He needs to be kept safe until he gets that liver.”

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