My mother was taken by ambulance to Brampton Civic’s ER on Sunday June 30th 2013 via ambulance for what she though were stroke like symptoms. She had some blood tests done including a CT and was discharged home. She took a taxi, and fell getting into it from weakness. She went home and I went to see her on Monday July 1st 2013. She looked terrible. I am a TRAUMA ICU NURSE and I immediately knew her illness was serious. My mother looked like hell. All the lymph nodes in her neck were swollen, and the left side of her jawline had a mass the size of a Loonie . She was slurring her speech and extremely forgetful in short term memory. She couldn’t follow a conversation past 5 minutes. The forgetfulness, and slurred speech were heard in a telephone conversation I had with her prior to calling the ambulance for her on Sun June 30th. I thought she was having a stroke and had my sister (who lives with her) called the ambulance on that date. I couldn’t believe that a ER doctor would discharge someone who had such a varied array of symptoms. She needed to be admitted, and a work up. Well, my Mother took a taxi back to Brampton Civic on July 3rd 2013 after realizing her memory was getting worse. She made notes of the past few days events, put them somewhere and then couldn’t find them. It was only then that she realized that something was gravely wrong, as she prided herself in her memory, and she was frustrated enough to conclude that something was wrong with her mind. She took a taxi back to Brampton Civiv on July 3rd, and actually got admitted this time. Long story short, my mom was admitted to the Oncology floor and diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma a week later! The question is: why did the Emergency doctor discharge her from hospital the first time? The blood work showed that she had a corrected calcium level of 4.7, and a K+ of 2.9 along with the sollen lymph nodes under her neck making her look like a Puffer fish. What kind of idiotic doctor would release a patient back into the community with issues like this? Brampton Civic Hospital is full of stories like my mother’s and the Patient Relations team are also of no use when you complain of negligence and mishandling. The media is your only recourse if you want to be heard.