A commentary by a co-founder of the Nanaimo Heart Sisters, which was launched in 2009.

The Nanaimo Heart Sisters is a non-profit group in Central Vancouver Island that provides support and advocacy for women who have experienced heart attacks, heart disease and strokes.

We are survivors who have experienced the life-threatening wait in the intensive care unit of Nanaimo Regional General Hospital after suffering a terrifying cardiac event.

We’ve gone to NRGH after feeling a sudden tightness in our chest, having trouble trying to breathe, experiencing nausea or feeling pain in our back, arm or jaw.

Hoping to find relief at NRGH, we were instead told that staff did not have the appropriate equipment to treat a cardiac patient, namely a cardiac catheterization lab.

So, we were put in a hospital bed and forced to watch the time tick away, wondering when or if we would be sent to Victoria’s Royal Jubilee Hospital, where treatment in........

© Times Colonist