A 66-year-old woman who has lost sight in one eye fears she will lose it entirely due to delays in cataract surgery.
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“I can’t see at all with my left eye and I’m starting to have trouble seeing with my right eye, so what’s it like having to wait until December? Am I being blinded?” asks Lucie Deneault, a resident of Salaberry-de-Valleyfield in Montérégie.
After noticing her vision was deteriorating in February, Deneault made an appointment with her optometrist the following month. The ax fell: she learned that she could no longer see in one eye and needed surgery.
Two months later, she was told she would not have an appointment until December 8, nearly 10 months after her diagnosis.
“I hardly drive anymore because I can’t see anything. Actually, the whole everyday life is embarrassing for me now, it annoys me a lot and it’s hell,” explains the cashier, who is currently on sick leave.
His grandparents
Finding her eyesight continues to deteriorate, she worries that she may be blind like some of her grandparents were.
“But they weren’t lucky enough to have surgery,” says Ms Deneault.
One day operation
Cataract extraction is considered an elective surgery and is a one-day procedure. But because of her ZIP code and bureaucracy, the 60-year-old has to wait nearly 40 weeks for an operation, compared to just nine weeks elsewhere in her area, Le Journal learned.
“It’s still ridiculous! That’s why I’m unable to work and will only be able to work again when I have an operation, when I know that I can quickly find work somewhere else,” says the currently insured person.
“If the operation and convalescence in the hospital had taken several days or weeks, I would understand, but it’s only one day,” she regrets.
Ready for anything
To regain their autonomy and quality of life, Ms. Deneault and her husband are ready for anything.
“I took the steps to get my file and prescription so I could have surgery elsewhere,” she says.
“If we have to go to Chibougamau for her to see, we will go. We are ready to cross Quebec,” says Ms Deneault’s spouse, Bernard St-Onge, who is worried about her.
“All I want is help to regain my life that I’ve lost since March,” the lady added.
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