Former St George’s Cup Match captain Wendell Smith has told how he turned up to hospital prepared to have a serious knee operation on two occasions only to be sent home due to a lack of available beds.

And he said there was even a possibility that his procedure would be postponed a third time, it later emerged.

The Bermuda Hospitals Board announced on Thursday that every bed in the emergency department and new acute care wing at King Edward VII Memorial Hospital was full.

In January, Mr Smith, 57, who was finding it difficult to walk because of complications with his knee, made all the pre-op preparations necessary — booking time off work at West Pembroke Primary School, where he is deputy principal and a PE teacher, packing his bags, ensuring his wife took medical leave to provide after-care, giving blood and urine samples, fasting the night before and, above all, mentally preparing for the procedure.

When the former Western Stars cricket coach arrived to the hospital on January 20, he was told that his operation might have to be put on hold and was asked to wait an hour or so to see if any room became available. Eventually, he was told that owing to a shortage of beds, he would have to go home.

Disappointed but not disheartened, he rescheduled his appointment for February 10 and made his way home while his wife cancelled her medical leave and returned to work.

On February 10, he turned up again having made all the same preparations, only to be told a second time that there was no bed for him. Again, his wife returned to work.

When he attempted to book his operation for the third time, he was told that the next available date would be April 19 — Mr Smith was unable to make it earlier for practical reasons relating to after-care and his surgeon had limited availability. He begged the administrative staff to squeeze him in earlier and with a little luck he was booked in for February 24.

This time he turned up and it emerged that he might have had to postpone a third time as a result of bed shortages but because of his previous experiences, he was prioritised and the procedure went ahead.

“Had they told me a third time, it would have been too much — I was going to consider going overseas,” Mr Smith said.

“It’s the mental preparation. I didn’t sleep very well the night before — when it’s a serious surgery, you are concerned about going under anaesthesia and if it is going to go well. I had arranged for my wife to be home — she works with the Bermuda Monetary Authority. She had medical leave to look after me because with a knee replacement you can’t get around very well.

“I was to the point where getting in and out of a car was a really gruelling exercise because I had to lean over towards the driver’s side and struggle to get in — I could barely bend my leg. It was becoming a nuisance day-to-day living. Just getting around school was a chore because I was dragging my leg around.”

Mr Smith said he managed to stay positive throughout the ordeal, in part thanks to a book he had read — Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, which says you can choose your response when “life happens”.

He also remembered the words of a mentor from Paget Primary School, where he was formerly the principal, who told him “the greater the crisis, the calmer you have got to be”.

However, Mr Smith, who is now back at home recovering, remains concerned at the overcrowding at Bermuda’s only hospital. The Bermuda Hospitals Board put out a statement this week to say that the hospital would “take care of acutely ill patients first” but described the situation as a “crisis”.

Mr Smith said: “My concern is that you have people who have serious illnesses who have to have a bed and the hospital is struggling and there are people who have been in traffic accidents and the like coming in. They may need to put some patients in the hallways.

“I was willing to do that after the second time — I said to my wife I would be happy to do that rather than have this continue to be a problem.”