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’s going to lose her leg because a surgeon started a procedure he couldn’t finish.

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

Instead, she spent days languishing with a painful open wound because there wasn’t a bed for her at Health Sciences Centre.

Her leg is now scheduled for amputation on Friday. 

“I don’t feel I have choices,” she said dejectedly from her hospital bed.

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

Complications from knee surgery

It’s a devastating outcome for Milburn, who in October finally received the knee replacement surgery she’s wanted for six years.

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

She was quickly transferred to Concordia Hospital for an examination. She was supposed to head to HSC right after to have the leg stitched up.

“I came out of recovery, they phoned 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 a bed opened up at HSC.

Once she was finally transferred, Milburn went under the knife for another infection, but due to the long delay in stitching up the wound, she said she was told her leg wasn’t salvageable. Two doctors recommended the amputation, she said. 

Her husband, Dan Milburn, was visibly frustrated as he recounted his wife’s ordeal. 

“Upset, hurt, angry, mad,” he said.

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

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

He said the surgeon who removed dead tissue from his wife’s knee shouldn’t have started an operation he couldn’t finish.

“He didn’t have a plan. He started cutting [her leg] without making sure there was a bed available here.”

Shared Health, the entity that oversees provincial health-care delivery, said in a statement it recognizes “the significant emotional toll this situation has had on this patient and her family and apologize[s] on behalf of the health-care system for any added pain, stress and harm.”

The organization added it cannot discuss Milburn’s care due to privacy legislation, but said she has “various options to consider.”

“Once the patient has all the information she deems necessary to make a fully informed decision, she will be the one to guide the care team in her preferred care plan going forward,” the statement reads.

But Milburn doesn’t feel like she has a choice.

Doctors may transfer tissue to her kneecap, but at least another surgery would be needed and there’s a chance her leg would still be amputated, she said.

“If I want the infection gone,” an amputation is “my only option, and the doctor told me that’s my only option,” she said.

Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara said health-care leaders will learn from Milburn’s experience.

“There were things that obviously did not go the way that they needed to go or should have gone for this person. It’s unacceptable, quite frankly,” Asagwara said in an interview.

“I have a lot of concern about the experience she’s had, but also what that means in terms of where do we need to fix things that are happening in the system that are not working the way that they should.”

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

“I’m ex-military. … You screwed up, you fix it, you’d never do it again.”

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

Milburn expects her life to change drastically as an amputee, but she hopes to be eligible for a prosthetic.

After weeks in hospital, she’s eager to get home to her dogs and favourite activities like woodworking and spending time with her grandson.