After waiting six hours in the emergency room of a Canadian hospital for suspected heart attacks, Adam Burgoyne finally returned home, without additional tests. The 39-year-old man died the next day, December 6, from an aortic aneurysm. A situation which highlights the lack of resources in the health system in this North American country.
“Luckily it wasn’t a heart attack. » Only a few hours after posting this message on his X account, Adam Burgoyne died suddenly from an aortic aneurysm, in which the wall of the artery ruptures, causing internal bleeding. Suffering from intense chest pain and nausea, the 39-year-old Canadian went to the hospital the day before his death, on December 6.
The caregivers quickly ruled out any risk of a heart attack and left him to wait in the waiting room… for six hours. And this, without additional examinations or blood tests. “I guess they could have made them for me if I had been willing to wait another 18 hours.”the thirty-year-old then joked about X, who finally decided to return home. “The Canadian healthcare system, friends. The best in the world »he joked in comment on a photo of himself, taken in the mirror.
In a tribute published the day after his death, we learn that Adam Burgoyne was in the midst of a period of personal reconstruction. Sober for six years after a long period of alcohol dependence, recently in a relationship, fond of piano and sports… His sudden death, resulting from an error in diagnosis, highlights the shortcomings of Canada’s health system , yet presented as much better than that of the United States.
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“People die while waiting for a proper diagnosis”
In a study published in 2017 by the British medical journal The Lancet, Canada is in 17th position in the ranking of health systems. The United States is 35th, behind Somalia. But on social networks, Internet users point out the too many failures of emergency services.
“People die waiting for a proper diagnosis. There are too few doctors. Too few resources. […] Wait times are so long in emergency rooms that many people are too afraid to go. Things can’t continue like this.”deplores, for example, a Canadian woman, on her X account.
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In this sense, according to an Ipsos survey published on April 11, less than half (48%) of Canadians are satisfied with their provincial health system. “ Many emergency rooms across the country are overflowing and patients are waiting far too long to receive needed care », also pointed out a report from the Canadian Medical Association published in early 2024.
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