Woman mauled by dog faces 4 closed ERs in rural Manitoba

A woman is raising alarm bells after she was mauled by a dog and spent hours trying to find a doctor in rural Manitoba.

Animal services worker Penny Wainwright was at a farm for a "predator claim" between Arborg and Fisher Branch, Man., when she was mauled by a dog.

"Their dog, who had a history of attacking people and biting, bit me quite badly," she said.

She suffered puncture wounds to her hands and legs and at one point passed out on the floor of a house on the farm.

The homeowner drove her to the Arborg emergency room, but the ER was on diversion and there were no doctors available.

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"I was told there were no doctors in Arborg, and it could be hours before anything was done," she said. " I had bite punctures to my right thigh and right hand if you know anything about the average dog, they have a bite force … enough to puncture metal."

Wainwright was told there were no doctors in the Eriksdale, Ashern or Gimli ERs, and she would have to go through Selkirk.

"The problem is the doctors at Selkirk, which is the hospital that did have a doctor available, they don't phone back in a timely manner," she said. "I was pretty afraid."

'Somebody's going to die'

About an hour later, doctors in Selkirk gave instructions to nurses in Arborg to give Wainwright antibiotics and Tylenol 3s.

"They literally poured some saline over my leg and one of the nurses in Arborg said, 'Well, it looks like you might have a tooth in one of those punctures, maybe you could palpate it yourself and try and get it out.' They wouldn't do anything!" said Wainwright.

Eventually, she was able to get in touch with her family doctor and was told to go to an ER in Ashern, Man.

"I said I need to do something here. Can you not do something for me or get me to Selkirk or should I get my boss to drive me to Ashern?"

Arborg nurses told her she wouldn't be seen in Ashern, but she had her boss drive her there anyway and was treated.

Wainwright said the doctors and nurses in Ashern were fantastic.

"Nurse-managed care, if they're going to have that, they need to let the nurses actually do something for the patient," she said. "Somebody's going to die."

'Everyone's committed to fixing this'

"I can't speak specifically to the nature of what happened at Arborg what I can commit to is that a full investigation [will be done]" said Ron Van Denakker, the CEO of the Eastern Interlake Regional Health Authority. "The challenge within our region continues to be the fact that we are somewhere between 25 and 45 doctors short. The nurse managed care piece was put in place at least to try to give us some flexibility around that."

Denakker said the summer months would be "absolutely crazy," but conversations with doctors are happening to create a reliable system.

Denakker says the area will have a process in place with extensive communication.

"[Nurse-managed care was] never was intended to be a long-term strategy," he said.

Denakker said he will be reaching out to new and existing MLAs in the region to deal with the challenges.

"Everyone's committed to fixing this," he said.