Dying senior waited a week to get TV in hospital room

Elaine Ewasiuk’s favourite TV show was “Cops.” Her granddaughter, Brandie Ewasiuk, said it always lifted her spirits, and that’s why Brandie wanted to make sure her grandmother had access to a TV in her hospital room during what would end up being the last two weeks of her life. She had a TV for less than two days before she died.

Brandie is now advocating for senior patients to have more timely access to TVs during their hospital stays.

Elaine, 83, was taken to the Brandon Regional Health Centre by ambulance after she fell and broke her knee and shoulder on July 7.

After several tests, doctors determined her cancer had returned and she received a terminal diagnosis. She died in palliative care on July 20.

“I just keep picturing her staring at the wall,” Brandie said in an interview on Tuesday.

“With her having a hurt shoulder and a broken knee, she can’t just get up and wander down the hallway and do stuff or even like flip through a magazine,” she said.

“My grandmother raised me, so she’s basically my mother. I know her through and through, and TV’s her life.”

Brandie said she contacted the hospital’s TV program representative eight times to order a TV for her grandmother’s room, but did not get a response.

The program, which rents televisions to patients for $128 a month, is run by part-time team of “TV representative staff,” who also install the sets, a Prairie Mountain Health spokesperson said.

“Every single day I left my number to call me back at and no one even told me like if there’s a waiting list or what I have to do,” Brandie said.

After five days, Brandie emailed the PMH patient relations office, explaining the situation.

A TV was finally installed in Elaine’s room on July 14 — one week after she was admitted.

Elaine had the TV for a day and a half before she was moved into palliative care at the hospital, dying four days later.

The Sun contacted the TV rental program nine times between Tuesday and Thursday and received no response.

Brandie said nurses and staff warned her that it’s not uncommon to experience delays connecting with the rental program.

“Nurses were literally telling me, ‘Oh, you’re dealing with that, I’m so sorry.’ So, they’re aware that there’s a problem,” Brandie said. “It shouldn’t be this hard to get a simple TV for my grandmother.”

A Prairie Mountain Health spokesperson said in an email on Wednesday that delays can happen when the demand surpasses the number of units available.

“In these situations, requests are addressed on a first-available basis, and patients may experience a delay until a TV becomes available,” the statement said.

Brandie, who lives in Winnipeg, said the distance made it challenging to visit her grandmother in Brandon, and Elaine’s other family members, all of whom are older than 80, also struggled to visit.

“It’s seniors I want to advocate for,” Brandie said. “My grandma does not know how to work a cellphone, doesn’t know how to work an iPad. I can’t just FaceTime or call her cellphone.

“The TV is literally the only solace she had.”

The PMH spokesperson said they are aware of the concern and patient relations “is communicating directly with the family on the matter.”

Brandie said she hopes other grieving families don’t have to experience what she did during the final weeks of her grandmother’s life.

» rgerrard@brandonsun.com