'Sorry does not really cut it': Local man speaks out after hip surgery cancelled while on operating table

A St. Thomas, Ont. man was taken aback and left out-of-pocket after he travelled three hours for surgery in Owen Sound — only to learn the hospital was missing a part for his operation while on the operating table.

“I’m laying there flat on my back, IV in my arm and everything else, and they’re ready to put the spinal tap in to knock me out,” Ricky Murray, 53, explained. “And they said, ‘Oh we have a problem. What’s that? We haven’t got one of your parts. No parts? Yeah we have no part, it’s gone, missing, or somebody didn’t order it.’”

The surgery was scheduled in November of last year, to take place this past Monday, on Jan. 16. It was for first thing in the morning, so he arrived the night before with his family, and stayed at a hotel.

His daughter, Camdyn Murray, was blown away when she got the news while sitting in a hotel room worried and waiting on her dad.

“And I was like, ‘What? Your surgery’s canceled?’ That’s just unbelievable. We spent a night there and it’s all for nothing,” she said.

Murray said he was offered the surgery on the spot, but using a part made with steel instead of ceramic, and of a different size. He opted against it because a couple years earlier he had the same surgery on the other side using ceramic, and he wanted both the right and left sides to be the same.

Murray now wants compensation from the hospital for the hundreds of dollars he is out for on expenses. He said he spoke with patient services at Grey Bruce Health Services, but was not happy with their response.

“We used our money to come up there and you guys don’t want to do anything about it,” he said. “We haven’t got that in our funds.”

He said a verbal apology over the phone was all he received for the inconvenience.

“Sorry, but sorry does not really cut it because you’re not fixing my problem. You guys made the problem, not me,” said Murray. “You guys should have had that all planned, not two minutes before you’re going to cut me open.”

Murray said he could have had the surgery done right in St. Thomas or in nearby London, but he was told that because of surgery backlogs, it would be a year-and-a-half to two years before he could get in. It took just two months to get into Owen Sound.

Grey Bruce Health Services did not respond to requests from CTV News London for comment.

The Patient Ombudsman for Ontario said it could not comment on individual situations.

In the meantime, Murray said he is now trying to get the surgery scheduled at a closer hospital.