Brandon woman who hasn't eaten in 34 days relieved after surgeon steps up to help
Doctors in Saskatoon, Winnipeg, offered to help patient after story spread on social media
A Brandon woman who hasn't eaten in 34 days while waiting for a doctor to help her is crediting social media with helping to put an end to her painful ordeal.
Sharon Ellerington, 43, was admitted to the Brandon Regional Health Centre in late September with severe abdominal pain, which requires a special surgery the hospital has no surgeon for.
"It has been a very, very difficult road," Ellerington said.
"I've just been living on bagged IV nutrients."
"I have a tube that runs down my nose, it's actually in there 63 centimetres to my stomach."
Ellerington is living with celiac artery compression syndrome, a disease which she called rare.
Doctors confirmed Ellerington had a twisted ligament cutting off blood flow to an artery in her abdomen, but the hospital has had no surgeon to operate on her.
After Ellerington shared her story, surgeons in Saskatoon and Winnipeg reached out to her, offering to help.
"It happened very quickly," she said.
"All of the sudden I'm receiving confirmation that I got into Winnipeg."
Ellerington said she's been overwhelmed with emotions ever since she found out she's going to get the long-awaited surgery.
She likened it to being "almost a dream come true."
'Almost made me speechless'
"It's almost made me speechless."
Ellerington will travel to Winnipeg next Tuesday for a consultation about the surgery.
"I'm just hoping that it will happen within a day or two," she said.
"I don't think that they're going to want to wait very long after it's already been 34 days."
Ellerington said she wants answers from Prairie Mountain Health, the authority tasked with operating the Brandon Regional Health Centre.
"You start losing hope very quickly when you aren't getting news at all and the clock's ticking, the days keep piling up," she said.
Ellerington said she's looking forward to having a bowl of fettuccine alfredo once she's recovered.
"There better be a whole lot of cheese around because I'm a cheese lover," she said.
Prairie Mountain Health has told CBC it will not comment on the matter due to patient privacy.
-- With files by Holly Caruk and Riley Laychuk