Barbara Roden
Free Press
Lone Butte resident Bob Beaumont says that when he was called about the heart bypass surgery he needed, the staff at the new surgical facility in Kelowna had a question for him.
“They asked me if I felt OK about being the first patient in the new surgical centre there. I told them it wasn’t a problem; I just wanted to get it done.”
Reassured, staff advised him to pack a bag and head to the Okanagan for surgery on Sept. 28.
The new Interior Heart and Surgical Centre in Kelowna officially opened on Oct. 16, and Beaumont says there was a lot of excitement from everyone there about the new facility.
“There was a lot of talk about it from staff,” he says, adding head cardiologist Dr. Richard Hooper has been advocating for comprehensive cardiac services in the Interior for 15 years.
The centre has state-of-the-art technology, and is the only facility in the Interior that can perform open-heart procedures; up to 600 a year will be able to be accommodated.
Beaumont says this will significantly cut down on the waiting time for people who need heart surgery.
“I was told in August when I went for an angiogram, I needed a bypass and it would be six to eight weeks before I could get one. In the past, I would have had to go to Vancouver for the procedure.”
The new centre will relieve pressure on Lower Mainland hospitals, he adds.
“There’ll be no problem getting surgeons there, I was told, because they want to work in such a state-of-the-art facility.”
Beaumont’s first sign that something was wrong came in May this year, when he took a stress test in Williams Lake. The angiogram confirmed he needed bypass surgery, and he spent seven days in the Kelowna facility.
He made a return trip to Kelowna last week to see his cardiologist, and in four weeks, he has an appointment with his surgeon Dr. Guy Fradet. There won’t be any need for Beaumont to travel far for that, however.
“I’ll be able to speak with him via teleconferencing from the hospital in 100 Mile House.”
He will return to Kelowna for a follow-up in the spring, eventually cutting his visits down to once a year when he gets the all-clear.
Beaumont has nothing but praise for the care he got there.
“It was incredible, from the top down,” he says, adding Dr. Fradet is the top surgeon at the new centre. “I wish to say thank-you to the nurses and staff of 2 West for the incredible care I received.”
