Columnist Marilyn Watson shares her own story of suffering harm in a Canadian hospital

An article in the Thursday, Oct. 9, edition of the Sentinel Review caught my eye.

Written by Sharon Kirkey, We’ve taken our eyes off the ball revealed the results of a study by the Canadian Institute for Health Information: “More than 153,000 people were harmed in Canada’s hospitals last year.”

Kirkey wrote, “The data show there were 55,929 hospital-acquired infections in 2024-2025, 6,769 ‘patient accidents,’ 33,470 procedure-as-associated harms, like a puncture wound during surgery, and 86,817 medication-associated conditions.” Her article also claimed, “Too much secrecy still shrouds hospital harm.”

This report really hit home for me. Here’s my secret: I was a statistic back in 2016. Like 33,470 people in 2025, I was the victim of a procedure-associated harm. I had an artery nicked during my knee replacement at a local hospital on Dec. 5, 2016. At that time, there was no vascular surgeon on staff. When they discovered the damage the morning after, I was rushed by ambulance to the London Health Sciences Centre – Victoria Campus.

When I arrived, I was taken immediately into surgery. My husband was advised they might not be able to save my leg. I was lucky. They replaced the artery. They saved my leg. Two days later, I was back in surgery to have both sides of my calf opened and a fasciotomy performed. I spent most of my days there in ICU with a........

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