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HEALTH
ICU gaps worry Alberni doctor Hospital limits intensive care for a week: patient
» Government
ERIC PLUMMER ALBERNI VALLEY TIMES
academic opportunities. Lunney said Monday it’s big business that’s influencing law societies against Trinity Western University turning out lawyers, considering what is widely reported in more liberal communities as a “homophobic” stance at the Christian school. Additionally, Lunney says there have been “unprecedented” attempts to cut people with a Christian world view out of professional licensing boards, and that the decision to eliminate doctors’ conscience provisions is contrary to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. He maintains that God himself isn’t pleased with the punches Christian legislators are taking. “God’s tired of seeing people bullied as well,” Lunney said. Lunney, who holds a bachelor of science and is a chiropractor by profession, said he has thousands of detractors – but it’s not scientists razzing him for his beliefs. That’s in part, he says, because criticism of belief of a higher order stops at the cell level, Lunney said, adding that he is particularly fascinated by the process of apoptosis – the intricate process of “programmed cell death” that provides for orderly controlled internal demolition of old cells that are no longer needed.
The absence of a professional to handle severe medical conditions at the West Coast General’s intensive care unit created a frightening gap in health services for both doctors and a patient at the Port Alberni hospital. Brian Mees was admitted to the West Coast General on March 24 with cardiac issues. He recalls being treated promptly by staff, who wasted no time with an intravenous hook up, blood pressure monitoring and electrocardiogram tests to measure his heart activity. The results brought concern from the internal medicine specialist at hand who was overseeing treatment in the ICU. “It appears that there was serious consideration to sending me by ambulance to Nanaimo General Hospital, but Dr. Morris was informed that no beds were available,” wrote Mees in a letter he sent to the Times. “It was decided by Dr. Morris to admit me for further observation overnight.” Mees, a senior who has suffered two heart attacks in the past, was fitted with telemetry to be monitored in the hospital’s intensive care unit. But the three-bed ICU’s shortage of doctors to treat patients with life-threatening illnesses created an alarming situation for the patient. “After the fitment of the telemetry, I was politely informed that as of 8 a.m. on Wednesday, March 25, that should any untoward event occur, there would be no internist available, nor would there be an operational ICU, and there would be no specialist available,” Mees said. “This situation would exist until the middle of the following week.” The patient recalls staff being upset at the lack of available care and the risk it posed. “We were all unhappy at the time and Brian was unhappy because he had to lie here with no internist covering his heart condition,” said Dr. Daniel Van Der Merwe, who signed Mees’ discharge when the patient finally left the hospital. “It was quite an issue for a week, they couldn’t find anybody to come in place of Dr. Morris who left.” Over this period the hospital relied on specialists elsewhere, said Valerie Wilson of Island Health communications. “For four days at the end of March emergency physicians relied on telephone consultation for any questions that they had that were internal medicine related,” she stated in an email to the Times.
See LUNNEY, Page 9
See ICU, Page 9
Shedding his Conservative colours, Dr. James Lunney, seen on Easter weekend at Cox Bay, takes a stand for faith – and science. [SUBMITTED PHOTO]
Lunney’s stand: newly independent MP seeks respect for Christian faith JACKIE CARMICHAEL WESTERLY NEWS
Now independent, the Member of Parliament for Nanaimo-Alberni is feeling the fiery trial of public criticism after last Wednesday’s resignation from the Conservative caucus. For Dr. James Lunney, it was a dramatic tie-severing – even for a 15-year legislator who announced he wouldn’t run when the election is called, presumably in October. In an interview with the Westerly News on Monday, Lunney’s complaints boiled down to bigotry and tolerance over science and faith. Lunney says he’s concerned about efforts by pundits like former NDP advisor Ian Capstick’s efforts to “take Christians out of politics by ridiculing and embarrassing them.” He ticks off a litany of Christian politicians, from Stockwell Day (remember Warren Kinsella waving Barney the Dinosaur over Day’s views as to the age of the earth?) to recently-appointed Alberta education minister Gordon Dirks and Ontario MLA Rick Nichols – all who have taken a ripping from less faith-filled colleagues and pundits. “Is a Christian world view suddenly a threat to Canada?” he asks aloud, blue eyes blazing in a tanned face. Although many Canadians consider religion unimportant according to some surveys, the majority still believe in God or
“We don’t mock these things, we affirm them. Why is it only Christians that are allowed to be publicly belittled, demeaned, insulted?” Dr. James Lunney, Nanaimo-Alberni MP
a higher power; according to the National Household Survey in 2011, the majority of Canadians consider themselves Christian or some other religion, including Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist or Jewish. The tolerance he seeks for Christian legislators is often afforded to other faiths, he told the Huffington Post. “We don’t mock those things, we affirm them. Why is it only Christians that are allowed to be publicly belittled, demeaned, insulted?” he asked. At the political level, religion or religious pluralism sometimes butts heads with governmental agendas, in areas like education or medicine. Lunney has found himself in the minority on the House floor over topics like abortion and has been dubbed by what he might consider the “liberal media” to be the “Anti-Evolution MP.” His resignation last week came after Christian leaders said at a press conference they face infringements on professional and
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