The Assiniboine and Red rivers flowing behind the St. Boniface Hospital, carry great historical value to our province.
Inside the health care facility, life saving and urgent measures are taking place daily. I know, as I have been the recipient first hand.
Demanding exceptional healthcare – Dr. David Hochman GI Surgeon at St. Boniface Hospital 7 th ward – leads by example.
In the milieu of conversations regarding an overtaxed healthcare system, there is a star, who not only saves lives, but runs his domain at St. Boniface Hospital, like no another. The priority placed on the patient is bar non and the intuitive approaches utilized are nothing short of creative.
It’s very clear the big “C” doesn’t intimidate him, nor does it throw him off his course. His approach is very methodical, tactical and determined.
I learned that Dr.Hochman is no typical surgeon. He is totally accessible, dedicated to his patients and reassuring. It’s as if he loves the pathway he determines to take, with each individual patient.
I am assigned Dr. Hochman for a ileostomy reversal plus the repair of multiple hernias. I trust only him.
Sixteen months earlier I found myself, on death’s door, at a different hospital with a surgeon I never met. I had a perforated bowel and gone into septic shock in January /24. As in any emergent situation, you are at the mercy of the system. I now existed with an ileostomy. My stoma was reversible so I had time to plan for reversal. In addition I required repair of multiple hernias.
Dr. Hochman is the physician with the expertise to tackle my issues. I shall wait as long as it takes to secure him. And so, Dr. Hochman, who is a little older now and more seasoned ,as am I, meet to discuss his strategy.
The wait has been long as he’s indicated he’s never seen so much cancer. I’m patient.
He runs a regimented battalion of healthcare professionals running the gamet on the seventh floor of St. Boniface, who understands his methods and philosophies towards health.
Finally my surgery date approaches. Upon arrival and preparing for surgery, my husband and I both look at each other. This is not familiar at all. The staff are kind, and treat us with a sense of humanity. How is the possible considering our own previous horror story ? But it is ! The public is inundated with extreme portrayals of feeling helpless.
But someone has set the tone and we each know who is responsible.
Never have I been on a medical ward as a patient, where the entire staff are delighted to be there. This elated state ranges from the heath care aids, cleaning staff, nurses, etc. I felt them cheering me on as Hochman enforces a 6 walk a day routine.
How can this championing spirit not motivate one to strive and get better ? It’s contagious.
I’ve never seen a surgeon in scrubs during the weekend. Never! David would be there just completing yet another surgery around 6:30.
Are there financial restraints evident? Of course. I left with no homecare. But he wants me out of harm’s way with all the bugs floating around. It’s safer at home.
To say he cares about his patients would be an understated. The commitment he has is bar non to anything I’ve ever seen.
He is as far from aloof as one can get. He is strict but you want him to be.
St. Boniface Hospital is beyond fortunate to have not just him, but his team, and this atmosphere which I believe delineates from the example he sets.
It can be done, and it’s outstanding, considering today’s health care environment.
It takes so little to care. Dr. David Hochman has proven it so.
