'Very disappointed in the health-care system:' B.C. man waiting 4 years for back surgery

A Chilliwack, B.C. man who’s been waiting four years for back surgery is slowly seeing his health and quality of life deteriorate.

Glen Millard,76, who has a hobby farm, says a lifetime of wear and tear has left him with several missing discs and damaged vertebrae.

"It's getting what I would call crippling now,” Millard told CTV News.

Millard, who walks with elbow crutches, says the pain has gotten worse over each of the last four years.

"I am so slow getting up and doing what I'm moving to, trying to do,” he said.

Millard says he was told by a specialist that the surgery would be major, with a lengthy recovery.

He knew once the COVID-19 pandemic hit that it would take longer, but he’s now been waiting four years.

Millard said he’s been told he is on a waiting list of 15,000 people, but says he's been unable to figure out where exactly on that list his name is

“They said we don’t know,” he said, describing the response he's received to his questions.

“Well that doesn't help,” Millard added.

He also says his surgeon was told physicians have been instructed not to do any procedures that would require longer than an overnight stay.

CTV News has reached out to the Ministry of Health to ask if this is true, but have yet to receive a response.

Millard’s close friend, Clara Hooper, even penned a letter to Health Minister Adrian Dix recently, but says they’ve heard nothing back.

"I’m very disappointed in the health-care system,” Hooper said.

“There’s a lot of good people working, there's a lot of great nurses. But it's not working for a lot of people,”

Hooper says it’s been tough to watch her friend struggle as his health declines.

"It's heartbreaking, it is literally heartbreaking, knowing that he's having a hard time getting up in the day, knowing that he can hardly move and the pain is so bad,” she told CTV News.

Millard, who battles through each day with heavy doses of pain killers, says it could be catastrophic if he doesn’t get the operation soon.

“It will deteriorate so that I won’t be able to move,”