Dan Andrews lectured a journalist who mentioned a patient with a back injury, using his own experience with the same injury to defend the quality of hospital care in his state.
The journalist asked the Victorian Premier why a patient with a fractured vertebrae had to be transported across the Box Hill Hospital parking lot on a stretcher.
Mr. Andrews became defensive in the midst of mounting criticism about Victoria’s overburdened hospital system due to bed and staff shortages.
Over two-thirds of patients at a major Melbourne hospital, Monash Medical Centre in Clayton, were not treated within the specified time frame, according to a recent report.
Mr. Andrews, who missed 111 days of work last March due to a mishap at his vacation house, looked provoked by the reporter’s remark and responded angrily.
He yelled that there was “nothing comfortable” about a broken back, which he emphasized was a “very serious” ailment.
Mr. Andrews stated, “I can confirm from personal experience that nothing about this type of damage is easy, and there are sometimes hurdles, but the team does its best to provide the finest treatment to these patients and all patients.”
He stated that his injury proved Victoria’s physicians and nurses “do their absolute, absolute, absolute best” to treat victims.
The injuries, which rendered him unable to breathe or summon assistance, was so severe that Catherine, his wife, worried he may die.
Instead, it resulted in his removal from Victoria’s top position for three and a half months and a lengthy recuperation.
Some critics have hypothesized that Mr. Andrews’ occasional irritability may be due to back pain.
“As I stepped upon the first stair,” I realized I was in difficulty. ‘I didn’t actually make contact with the step; it simply slipped right off, and I got nearly airborne,’ he stated at the time.
Then all I can hear is a tremendous crunch.
“I knew when I heard the crunch. I believed this was a terrible situation; we are in trouble.