Five Days After Breaking His Arm, Young Maltese Man Is Still Waiting For An Operation
It was five days ago now that 21-year-old Zac Dimech broke his arm, but he is still waiting for his operation at Mater Dei after it got repeatedly postponed.
Zac’s father Carlos told Lovin Malta that his son was hospitalised at around 8pm on Tuesday and spent the first two nights on a stretcher after which he was moved to ward and told he will be operated on the next day.
However, his operation ended up getting postponed to the next day everyday since.
“He’s in bed taking painkillers and fasting from 11pm till 4pm everyday in preparation for an operation that keeps getting postponed; he’s suffering from thirst and hunger over and above the pain in his arm,” Carlos said.
“They keep saying there are other more pressing emergencies or that there aren’t enough doctors but this is an emergency too; my son’s been waiting for six days now. They told him today that he’ll be operated on tomorrow… now we’ll see.”
Doctors have been on strike since Thursday in protest at the government’s refusal to ban events involving more than ten people, but they can still carry out surgeries, both emergency and elective ones.
Several medics have been placed into quarantine in light of the recent rise in COVID-19 cases, which could partially explain the strain on the hospital’s resources, but it is clear that Zac cannot afford to wait much longer for his operation.