By JAN CORBETT
Jean Billinge gestures towards the coffee table in the living room of her Whangaparaoa home. There is a letter lying there that makes her angry. She needs a heart bypass operation and the letter is from Green Lane Hospital, telling her she is on the cardiothoracic surgical waiting list. It says her case is considered "semi-urgent."
The problem is she received it 18 months ago, and she hasn't heard from the hospital since.
After 12 years with angina, her symptoms are growing steadily worse. She is often tired, can no longer garden, and can be crippled by an angina attack any time of the day or night. She has three blockages in her arteries and a leaking valve.
She is frustrated and frightened but says the anguish that comes with psyching herself up for surgery, going to the letterbox each day hoping for another letter, is probably the worst part.
She now believes the only way to get an operation is to have a heart attack. Friends have joked about taking her running along Greenlane Rd.
At the age of 64 and with no medical insurance because the premiums for elderly people were too expensive, Billinge, who worked as a machinist until her early 50s, and her husband Don, a builder and ex-foreman for the Union Steamship Company, are finding out the hard way what you can expect from the public health system.
Long, heartbreaking wait for surgery
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