Nurses are using powerful language to describe working conditions at Abbotsford Regional Hospital, but they say it's not the only hospital in B.C. struggling with a shortage of staff.

British Columbia Nurses Union president Gayle Duteil recently visited the emergency room at the Abbotsford Regional Hospital, which is short 30 nurses, and says she was shocked by the conditions she saw there.

"I would really describe it as the nurses are casualties because that was a war zone,” said Duteil. “I could not believe that there were people everywhere."

Duteil says the lack of nurses is causing things to back up and claims she saw treatment areas with three patients where there should have only been one.

The BC Coroners Service has two investigations open into deaths that happened after patients visited the Abbotsford ER.

Three-year-old Nimrat Gill died in the hospital earlier this month, during her second visit in two days.

"They made phone call and after that whole hospital was there,” said her mother Balraj Gill. “I think it was too late. She was gone by then."

Just a week before Gill's death, 56-year-old Marie Louise Murphy went to the hospital complaining of pain and was sent away after being given a shot of morphine. She died at home within hours.

"I watched my mom die. From the bottom of my heart, that's all I can think about,” said her son Andrew Grimeau.

Until it sees the results of the Coroners reports, the union won’t directly link the deaths to nursing shortages. However, it says staffing problems go well beyond Abbotsford.

Surrey Memorial Hospital is also short 30 ER nurses, BC Children’s and Women’s Hospitals need 20 more intensive care nurses, and the operating room in Dawson Creek is short 50 per cent of its staff.

"The population that needs healthcare is growing faster than the population that needs less healthcare,” said Premier Christy Clark when asked about the shortages. “This is going to be a problem we're going to have to continue to tackle."

The province says it hired 1,700 new nurses last year and is funding education and training for hundreds of specialty nurses such as those required in emergency rooms, operating rooms and intensive care units.