“I knew that there were patients that were in pain and dying, literally dying, and not getting the help they needed … I didn’t have the support.” – Dr. Suzanne Godsoe
Sept. 3, 2026
By Omar Mosleh Staff Reporter
Toronto Star
It was 4 a.m. when the emergency department chief assigned Dr. Suzanne Godsoe a patient, a woman in her 60s with signs of sepsis.
She had a fever, upper abdominal pain and jaundice, a triad that typically indicates acute cholangitis, a serious, life-threatening infection. The source of the infection was the woman’s gallbladder, and while she was stabilized with antibiotics, Godsoe knew she urgently needed imaging and a surgical assessment to determine if the gallbladder needed removal.
But she was told to wait until morning. The department had a skeleton staff in the early morning hours, and the chief wasn’t willing to call and wake up a radiologist or general surgeon, as the culture was “don’t rock the boat.”
“Could she survive till 8 a.m.? Most likely yes,” Godsoe recalled thinking. “But she’d already been there for 12 hours.”
After nearly 20 years as an emergency physician, Godsoe told the chief that morning she was done. He chuckled and asked if she meant her shift. She clarified she was giving her six months’ notice.
Read more at the Toronto Star (paywall)
