Editor:
I recently spent time as a patient in Royal Inland Hospital and had a negative experience about which I want to warn others who may spend time in the facility.
I shared a room with another patient and got to know him a bit — his name, his hometown and other facts.
One day, I was taken from the room to another part of the hospital for tests. When I returned to my room, I found that $115 had gone missing from the purse, which was next to my bed.
I asked my roommate point blank if he had taken my money and he admitted to doing so, adding that he would pay me back later.
It was theft, pure and simple, and I reported it to the nurse in charge. Unfortunately, my hospital roommate denied stealing my money when asked by nursing staff, so it became a he said/she said situation and there was nothing more that could be done.
That $115 is not going to make or break me, but there are many other people in Kamloops — perhaps even patients at RIH — for whom $115 is the difference between paying the rent and being on the street or the gap between eating and not eating for a week.
I felt — and still feel — violated to know somebody rifled through my purse and stole my money.
I am writing this letter to warn others at the hospital to better safeguard your valuables as I would hate for this to happen to somebody else.
Judy Bruneau
Kamloops
