Manitoba Family Says Transparency Over Health Care Wait Time Might Have Saved Mother’s Life

Ambulances are seen at a hospital in Toronto on April 6, 2021. The Canadian Press/Frank Gunn

Daniel Fewster says Canada’s health system failed his mother by forcing her to wait on a list while she needed urgent heart surgery to save her life.

His comments follow a report by think tank SecondStreet.org that found more than 15,000 Canadians died between 2023 and 2024 while waiting for surgery or diagnostic scans. Since 2018, the organization says more than 75,000 people have died while on a waitlist.

The organization is now calling for a new law that will let patients know if they will be on a waitlist longer than recommended by professionals.

Fewster’s mother, Debbie, lived in Niverville, Manitoba, about 40 kilometres south of Winnipeg. She passed away last Thanksgiving after waiting more than twice as long as doctors advised was safe.

She was diagnosed with angina in the summer of 2024, and doctors said she needed surgery within three weeks due to the seriousness of her condition.

Debbie was still on a waiting list when she passed away on Oct. 13, 2024.

”She ended up going home to rest, and that was the last time I ever saw her alive,” Fewster told The Epoch Times in an interview.

Debbie had three children and 10 grandchildren.

“This has been really hard on our family,” Fewster said in a video posted on the SecondStreet.org website. “One of the hardest things I ever had to do was tell my kids, her grandchildren; I had to wake them up in the morning and tell them that their grandma was gone. It’s been devastating. I have two sisters who both also have multiple children.”

He said his mother had been given medication to control her condition in August, and received a call from a nurse on Sept. 4.

“The pre-op nurse said they’re catching up from staff summer holidays, and ‘So you‘ll get one week notice when we’re going to fit you in, probably not September; October, maybe,’” Fewster said during the phone interview.

‘Debbie’s Law’

Fewster and his family are now joining with SecondStreet.org to call for change. They are proposing “Debbie’s Law,” which would require health authorities to notify a patient if needed care can’t be provided within the given timeline.

Fewster said if Debbie’s Law had been in place and a doctor told the family “‘We’re not looking to be able to see you for over two months.’ I can guarantee you we’d have found a way.” The family likely would have found private care in the United States, he said.

“Whether we remortgaged our houses or asked friends or family for help, we'd have found another way to get the private work done,” he said.

The family trusted the health-care system and didn’t realize “how badly it was broken,” he said, adding his mother wasn’t “pushy.”

“She was going to be a good citizen. She was going to wait her turn. She trusted in the health-care system to show up for her, and it just didn’t.”

In 2023/24, SecondStreet.org found that 115 patients in Ontario died while waiting for heart surgery, and 41 of them waited longer than the maximum recommended wait time.

“This isn’t about politics. It’s about honesty and transparency for patients and their families,” said Harrison Fleming, legislative and policy director at SecondStreet.org. “This is a law that isn’t ideological; all parties should be able to get behind it.”

According to SecondStreet.org data, 3–5 million Canadians are on a health-care waitlist. Of those, 1.5 million are waiting for diagnostic support, another million are waiting to see a specialist, and more than 600,000 need surgery.