A Montreal man died one day after he posted on social media about giving up waiting at the hospital for medical attention.
Adam Burgoyne, 39, passed away on Dec. 6. According to his obituary, he died of an aneurysm.
Burgoyne Posted About Suffering a 'Health Scare,' Giving Up After Being Made to Wait 6 Hours In the Waiting Room
"Had a bit of a health scare last night, but thankfully it wasn't a heart attack," Burgoyne said in a Dec. 5 post on the social media platform X that has since gone viral.
"Not sure what it was, though, because once they were sure I wasn't dying I was thrown out into the waiting room."
Six hours later, he gave up and went home.
"Canadian health care, folks," Burgoyne said in his post. "Best in the world."
Burgoyne even joked about the hospital staff having to shave part of his chest for an electrocardiogram test. "I feel like Samson after his hair was cut."
He noted the hospital — which is not identified in the post — did not offer to test his blood or take any X-rays. "I suppose that might have happened had I been willing to wait 18 hours more."
Burgoyne — who said that he didn't feel panicked at all before the hospital visit – noted he felt pain on the left side of his chest, nausea, and his skin was clammy. "Tried to just breathe a bit and see what happened but it started to get worse so I went to the ER." Burgoyne told his followers that he slept most of the day after his hospital visit.
Burgoyne's Death Has Sparked Concerns Over Wait Times at Canadian ERs
Burgoyne's story has renewed criticisms about Canada's publicly-funded healthcare system, which works under a decentralized collection of provincial and territorial health insurance plans that is essentially free for patients at the point of care.
Because the country's health system is founded on the principle of access and not ability to pay, many Canadians who can afford American healthcare will often travel south to the U.S. for elective procedures.
"There are amazing people who work within the Canadian health system—ER doctors who really care, incredible nurses...but our system is broken, and has been for quite some time," Canadian journalist Katherine Brodsky wrote on X in response to Buroyne's death.
"People die waiting for proper diagnosis. There's too few doctors. Too few resources. Too few PET scan machines (around 56 PET scanners compared to the 2,370 in the U.S.) Wait times so long in the ER that many people are too afraid to go. And so on and on," Brodsky tweeted. "It cannot go on like this. We can change this, while ensuring that everyone is covered, but it takes a real will."
Reactions on X
Other Canadian users on X also commented with their own stories of long wait times. "Damn....I was having recurring chest pains and got bad enough that I went to the hospital (also Canadian) Same thing, I got spit into the waiting room and I was there for 10 hours before they said I was fine. This is concerning," @Beersteve, a user from British Columbia, wrote.
"Had pretty much the identical experience here in Manitoba 3 months ago, so I went home. Then, it took 3+ months to talk to my own Dr on the phone for a followup," said another.
