1st Manitoban to get surgery in Ohio under wait-list reduction agreement urges others to sign up

Kim Kurylo is telling Manitobanstheir long-awaited hip replacement surgery could happen soon so long as eligible people are willing to take a flight.

Kurylois raving about her trip toCleveland, Ohio., last month for a procedure she's been waitingfor since 2019.

She wants otherManitobans to follow her lead, but says either not enough peopleknow about the optionor are willing to take part.

Since August, whenthe Manitoba government announcedthe new agreement for hip and knee surgeries in Ohio, only one person Kurylohas made the trip. She's jokingly called herself the "Canadian guinea pig."

"Why aren't people signing up? Ourbacklog could go down a lot faster if people would sign up for out-of-province, but it seems like some people are scared."

This year, the Manitoba government pledged tocover the cost for hundreds of people to get their surgeriesin other jurisdictions. The province signedthese arrangements towhittle down a massive backlog of patients waiting for surgeries and diagnostic tests, which wasmade worse by the pandemic.

Pace ofsurgeries expected to pick up

So far, 140 people have gone under the knife outside Manitoba, the government said on Monday.

Earlier this fall, a provincial spokesperson said the provinceexpects the number ofpatients travelling out ofManitoba will grow more quicklyas the process becomes streamlined and more peoplebecome aware of the opportunity.

Kurylo said sheapplied for the out-of-province option as soon as she became aware of it in September. Sheturned her focus south of the border after learning there was a demand and, in turn, a growing waitfor northwestern Ontario, but not the United States.

The retired former MTS employee specifically asked for Ohio after friends of hers, who are medical professionals, lauded the Cleveland Clinic.

After looking at her medical records, her surgeon in Ohiolike the one in Manitobarecognized how badly she needed hip replacement surgery.

Herleft hip to begin todeteriorate in 2014 because of osteoarthritis, followed by herrighthip in 2018. It got to the point where the avid hiker could no longer scale new heights on her B.C. trips, let alone plant agarden by herself at her Transcona home.

She got onthe surgery wait list in the middle of 2019.

It would be two years at most for herfirst hip, she was told, but the pandemicwhich closed operating rooms at times becausesurgical staff were neededin other areas of the hospitalextended her wait. Her hips reacheda point of "severe degeneration," her surgeon told her.

The pain didn't go away, but "it starts to wear on you mentally,"Kurylo said. "Iwas irritable, cranky, mad at a lot of things."

"I kept saying to myself, 'OK, you're not going to die from this. You don't have cancer. You're not having a heart attack. It's just your hips. They can fix them. They'll fix them.'

"That's how I used to talk to myself, but then it's getting to the pointthat I start calculating how much tax I've paid to Manitoba Health over all these years and never used it, and now I need it and now I can't have it."

It was becoming clear a surgery in Manitoba in 2022 wasbecomingunlikely, which put Kurylo at her "wits' end," she said.

She could tell her surgeon was frustrated, too.

"He said, 'I know, I sit here every day telling my patients why I can't help them.'"

Kurylo said she was impressed at the ease in which her out-of-province procedure was arranged.

A member of the Manitoba diagnostic and surgical recovery task force called her 12 hours after she submitted her application. The province handled all travel and accommodation details.

All costs covered by Manitoba

Kurylo and thecompanion required to join heronly had to pay out of pocket for their meals, but the provincereimbursed them.

While in Cleveland in November, she was in regular contact withthe Manitoba task force. She says staff from Cleveland werein touch before and after hersuccessful surgery.

"I'd go back there in a minute,"Kurylo said.

Not all Manitobans waiting for a hip or knee surgeryare eligible for a trip outside the province. Eligible patients must be of normal weight, have no heart problems and cannot have a liver, kidney or blood-vessel condition, among other criteria.

More than 900 patients were waiting for an orthopedic hip replacement as of October of this year, a provincial dashboard says.

Kurylois encouraging those patients who are healthy enough to get their procedure out of province. Not everybody has the choice, she said.

"If you could get 200 [surgeries] at each place [out of province], that's 800 people off the wait-list," she said. "Every day more people are going on the list and we're just not making significant progress."

This year,86 spinal surgeries and 13 hip and kneeprocedures have been completed in Sanford, N.D., while Dryden, Ont., and Kenora, Ont., have conducted 29 and 11 hip and knee surgeriesrespectively, and one person has gone to Cleveland,the government said onMonday.

Kurylohas been tolda second Manitoban is currently in Ohio for treatment.

Blame and action

Thematter of out-of-province surgerieshas become a political football at the legislature this year.

The Progressive Conservatives have said the initiative shows the government's willingness to get Manitobans the quickest medical care possible, while the NDP have condemned the government forletting the health-care system deteriorate to the point where out-of-province options are sought.

"We can blame whoever we want to blame,"Kurylo said in response, "but in the meantime, I was impressed that they got this task force together and they actually did something."

The provincesaid the task force is working to build surgical capacity in Manitobato ensure the province can treat all of its citizens in the future.

Kurylosaid she's waiting eagerly forthe first week of 2023 when she can reapply for her second hip replacement to be donein Cleveland.

Manitobansinterested in getting a surgery outside the provincecan applyonline.

1st Manitoban gets surgery in Ohio under wait-list reduction agreement

2 years ago

Duration 2:19

A Winnipeg woman who had hip surgery out of province, hopes others will take the same option. Kim Kurylo had been waiting for surgery since 2019. Last month, she travelled to Cleveland for the procedure. She's surprised she was the first Manitoba patient to travel to Ohio to get it done.