Manitoba woman set to lose right leg after languishing in hospital bed with open wound

A Manitoba woman suffering from a post-surgery infection says she will lose her leg because a surgeon started a procedure she couldn't complete.

Roseanne Milburn, a 61-year-old military veteran, was in the hospital for a knee replacement, but required follow-up surgery after she developed an infection. She says she was told it would take a surgeon a day to remove the dead tissue from her right knee and stitch it up.

Instead, she spent days in a painful open wound because the health science center did not have a bed for her.

His leg is scheduled to be amputated on Friday.

“I don't think I have any options,” she said dejectedly from her hospital bed.

“My choices are to live with the infection for the rest of my life, or to get rid of the infection and the only way to get rid of it is to amputate my leg.”

Complications from knee surgery

It's a devastating result for Milburn, who in October finally got the knee replacement surgery she's wanted for six years.

The procedure led to an infection, and in late November a surgeon at HSC removed dead skin from her knee.

He was immediately transported to Concordia Hospital for evaluation. He had to go to HSC after getting his leg stitched.

“I came out of recovery, they called HSC and they said you can't send her here, we don't have a bed,” Milburn said.

She spent eight days at Concordia before opening a bed at HSC.

Once she was finally transferred, Milburn went under the knife for another transplant, but because of the long delay in getting the wound stitched up, she said she was told her leg was unsalvageable. Two doctors recommended amputation, she said.

Her husband, Dan Milburn, was visibly upset as he recounted his wife's ordeal.

“Distraught, hurt, angry, mad,” he said.

“The health care system failed my wife, and now she's going to lose her leg because of it.”

On Monday, a fellow military veteran showed up at HSC with a motorized scooter — a Christmas present he never expected to buy his wife this year.

He said the surgeon who removed the dead tissue from his wife's knee should not have started an operation he could not complete.

“He didn't have a plan. He started cutting (her leg) without making sure a bed was available here.”

Shared Health, the organization that oversees provincial health care delivery, said in a statement: “We recognize the significant emotional toll this situation has taken on this patient and his family and apologize on behalf of the health care system. The pain, stress and loss.”

The organization added that it could not discuss Milburn's care due to privacy laws, but said she had “various options to consider.”

“Once the patient has all the information he or she deems necessary to make a fully informed decision, he or she will be the one to guide the care team moving forward with their preferred care plan,” the statement said.

But Milburn doesn't think he has a choice.

Doctors can transfer tissue to her knee cap, but that would require at least one more surgery and her leg would likely still be amputated, she said.

“If I want the infection to go away,” amputation is “my only option, and the doctor told me it's the only option,” she said.

Health Minister Uzoma Asagawara said health service leaders would learn from the Milburn experience.

“There were things that obviously didn't go or should have gone the way they should have gone for this person. It's unacceptable, quite frankly,” Asagawara said in an interview.

“I'm very concerned about the experience he had, but what that means is that we need to fix things that are happening in the system that aren't working the way they should.”

Milburn said she wants more accountability when something goes wrong in the health-care system.

“I'm ex-military. … You screw up, you fix it, you'll never do it again.”

“You know how many times I've heard, 'That wasn't communicated to me?'” from health care workers, she asked. “Too many.”

Milburn expects a big change in her life as an amputee, but she hopes to qualify for a prosthetic.

After weeks in the hospital, she looks forward to going home to her dogs and favorite activities like woodworking and spending time with her grandson.