Three years in pain and still no date for surgery for Osoyoos’ Lee Horn

The wife of an Osoyoos man languishing in pain for nearly three years has come to Victoria to try to speed up the process of getting his hip replaced. Lee Horn waited nearly two years just for diagnostics to pinpoint the reason for his pain, and has been waiting for surgery for 538 days since he was told his hip needed to be replaced. His wife Gaye brought his story to the legislature Monday. “We know that under Christy Clark’s government, B.C. has the second worst wait lists for both hip and knee replacements,” said New Democrat health spokesperson Judy Darcy, who raised the issue in Question Period. “But Lee puts a human face to those troubling statistics. “It’s unconscionable that the health

care system has left Lee in debilitating pain for more than three years.” Lee and his wife Gaye had a photo tour operation in the south Okanagan, but Lee’s physical pain has left him unable to perform tasks that used to be routine. “I want my husband back,” says Gaye, plainly. “Imagine being a former college football player sitting inside watching his wife with two bad knees shoveling the driveway. That’s what waiting for health care looks like.” “What’s most galling is that the government ran a pilot project in Richmond that actually reduced waits for hip and knee replacements by 75 per cent, but they discontinued funding for it,” said Darcy. “The result is stories about people like Lee; people whose lives are disrupted and who are left in terrible pain waiting for surgeries. “The Christy Clark government simply isn’t working for patients like Lee.”