In need of a knee replacement for over 2 years, P.E.I. woman says the wait is 'wrecking' her life

Delaney Kelly · CBC News

· Posted: Apr 18, 2025 5:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 11 minutes ago

Lisa-Beth Glassman thought she'd beryllium spending her status painting, cooking and enjoying beingness connected her farm. Instead, she spends her days successful unspeakable pain.

She is 1 of galore radical successful Prince Edward Island who are waiting for knee replacement surgery. 

Glassman said the wait is precise hard connected her. 

"I'm astatine the extremity of my rope. I don't cognize what to do. I can't get immoderate alleviation and I can't get immoderate help," she said. 

According to Health P.E.I.'s website, 50 per cent of genu replacement patients are treated wrong 368 days, and 90 per cent wrong 715 days. Health P.E.I. was incapable to supply an estimation of however galore radical are presently waiting for the surgery.

Glassman said adjacent getting connected the waitlist takes immoderate time. It took her a twelvemonth to get connected to an orthopedic surgeon, then another twelvemonth to get an in-person appointment. A surgeon told told her she needed a genu replacement successful June 2023, but she inactive does not person a day for her surgery. 

"They apt won't adjacent beryllium mounting [a date] until determination betwixt July and September of this year. I don't cognize when," Glassman said. "That [surgery] could beryllium six to eight months aft that…. I don't person overmuch hope.

"Without knowing erstwhile this is going to end, it's truly hard to manage." 

Impacts connected intelligence health

The hold is not lone taking a toll connected Glassman physically; it's besides affecting her intelligence health. She said not knowing erstwhile her suffering volition extremity has been especially hard. 

"It's benignant of wrecking my life. It's truly hard, erstwhile you've got chronic pain, to deliberation astir thing else. Every question hurts, sitting inactive hurts," she said.

"I consciousness similar my beingness is benignant of connected clasp and there's nothing, nary anticipation dangling successful the future… I person thing to purpose for."

Glassman takes a precocious dose of symptom medicine daily. She can nary longer drive a car, and it's often precise hard for her to walk, truthful she spends a batch of clip astatine home. 

"I'm a beauteous pugnacious cookie, but this is debilitating to the constituent of ridiculousness," she said.

"I've got different activities that I similar to bash and everything seems to beryllium connected clasp and it's wreaking havoc with my intelligence health. I'm truly depressed." 

Treatment successful different provinces? 

Glassman has been searching for ways to shorten her wait. She projected having the cognition successful different province, and was capable to get a country slot at a nationalist infirmary successful Toronto.

"I americium offering to spell to Toronto, wage my ain way, signifier my ain accommodations, conscionable wage for the freaking country that you'd beryllium paying for anyway. Whenever it came up,"  she said. 

She said her petition have Health P.E.I. wage for the Ontario country has been denied twice, despite a missive from her surgeon. 

"For them not to beryllium pro-active astatine each and to conscionable accidental there's excessively galore people, unrecorded with it — that's not a bully capable answer. That's not helping anybody." 

Health P.E.I. told CBC News successful an email that the Island has 1 of the longest hold times for scheduled genu surgeries successful Canada, but that backing for out-of-province operations is not available. 

"P.E.I. offers genu replacement country on-Island, and arsenic a scheduled (non-emergent) procedure, it is not presently eligible for off-Island funding," the bureau said. "Redirecting backing to outer jurisdictions would not physique PEI's ain semipermanent capableness oregon sustainability." 

'There are people in a batch of pain'

Glassman said she has been advocating for immoderate benignant of solution, not lone for herself but besides for others who are waiting.

She's adjacent taken to societal media to explicit her frustrations. That led to galore messages from Islanders successful akin situations. 

"I've heard tons of stories. There are people in a batch of pain, and possibly successful worse information than I am," she said. "I'm astatine the extremity of my rope. I'm frustrated due to the fact that I've tried to advocator for myself and others... and nothing's travel of it."

Health P.E.I. said it is aware the hold times tin interaction a person's prime of beingness and summation wellness risks, and said it's working to trim the timeline. 

"Health P.E.I. is investing successful areas similar optimizing scheduling, expanding operating country use, and expanding same-day procedures to trim hold times locally and amended efficiency, and guarantee equitable entree to care," the connection reads.