On March 3rd I broke my hip/leg, and an ambulance took me to the foothills hospital. The people on that day at the emergency ward were kind and attentive, and the women who took X-Rays of my broken leg were careful and gentle, and never hurt me. On March 4th I had surgery and then I was taken to ward 54, or whatever it is called to recover. I complained about several issues to the nurses and to my doctor’s assistant. The lady recovering next to me told me that she agreed with my complaints, but that she preferred to say nothing, so the nurses would not mistreat her, which in a way some of them did to me. When I was discharged, no one told me about Meals on Wheels, or about home care. If they don’t like you, they withhold information, among other things, in order to “screw you.”

The day after I was discharged, I went back to the foothills emergency ward (March 10) because I had hurt myself and was in agonizing pain. It was like arriving to a place of hell, evil, horror and torture. The “nurses” were arrogant, spiteful and aggressive; they would throw my shoes around so it would be hard for me to get up and use the washroom, which I had to use often, due to the strong and horrible pain killers they gave me which dried my mouth; they were annoyed that I requested often to disconnect me from the IV so I could use the washroom, and would ignore my requests to help me.

But the worst horror, torture and evil I suffered was in the hands of your so called “X-Ray technicians”, a black man and a white woman. The black man, in the most insensitive manner, taking X-Rays of my broken leg, pulled my leg with full force to get me down on the X-Ray table, while I screamed and cried in pain. The woman answered with a grin on her face and mocking my pain: “so, are we going to finish taking the X-Rays or not?” Not one apology for the pain they inflicted on me, not one “sorry, we didn’t mean to hurt you,” nothing. Those two despicable evil individuals treated me like cattle in the slaughter house.

I can’t believe what type of evil, insensitive, cruel people you hire! In addition to being poorly trained, their cruelty and lack of sensitivity, of them and of your nurses, appalled me.

I tell my friends around the world how cruel, mean and evil are the people at the emergency wards in Calgary hospitals. G-d forbid anyone of us should fall in their evil and hellish wards. This is what you call a developed country?

Within your hellish emergency ward, a woman with an accent approached me and asked if I needed help. She was a nurse born in Spain, and we both spoke Spanish. I told her that G-d sent her to me as an angel amidst hell and evil in your emergency ward.

All my friends around the world will be receiving this same text, and CTV as well; how this supposedly developed country treats its sick and injured. Shame on Canada!

Alice Fischer