I have a buddy in Toronto who tore his ACL. It took 3 months to get an MRI. After varying the ACL was torn, it was a 9 month wait for the surgery or TWO YEARS PLUS if he wanted to pick his own surgeon. He ended up coming to the states to get it done.
I tore off my left ring finger at work (complete avulsion) and my surgeon in training at Mercy Hospital was a guy from Canada. He point blank told my wife and I that they wouldn't even attempt to fix the finger in Canada. They would just amputate it.
It is true there can be long wait times in Canada to see specialists for non life threatening things like ACL repair, knee or hip replacement. My mom had to wait 18-20 months for knee replacement #1 and around 10 months to get the other knee done. But if you're bleeding or broken or seriously ill you get in and get fixed immediately with similar level of care to what you get in the US. When I broke my hand, I had surgery first thing the next morning. When I broke my wrist, surgery was a couple days later. Similar result for everyone I know who's had an accident or other issue requiring surgery or treatment. I call bullshit on what that doc told you about amputation. Even in Canada that would be a lawsuit waiting to happen.
FWIW, I've had ACL reconstruction on the same knee now in both countries so here's a basic comparison:
In Canada, I had to get a referral from a family doc or GP to see a specialist (sort of like an HMO here). Appointment with the GP was about a week out. The specialist he wanted me to see turned out to be the NHL Canucks team surgeon so there was a long wait for that consultation, maybe 9-10 months. Then add one more month since the team made the playoffs and I got rescheduled. He didn't send me for an MRI. Instead he put me on the table, manipulated the knee for 30 seconds and said, yup - torn ACL. After that evaluation I had my choice of surgery dates. The only out of pocket expenses were $25 for a pair of crutches and maybe $8 for a copay for my percocet prescription. PT was covered until the surgeon said I didn't need it anymore.
When I tore my ACL down here I made an appt with the specialist directly, which was maybe 3 weeks out. After I saw him the earliest surgery slots were a few weeks to a month out, so I had it done within 2 months of the injury. Recovery times were pretty similar. I ended up over $5k out of pocket for the surgery. The total billed to insurance was close to $60k, if I recall insurance actually paid out around $15-16k. I had to pay the first $2k then 20% and copays up to a total of $4k as my deductible/out of pocket, plus all the other BS insurance wouldn't cover. I had to chase a few providers for refunds after they made me pay more up front than they should have. During surgery there were some bone or cartilage fragments found floating around and some cartilage edge that needed to be trimmed. Insurance rejected that part of the surgeon's bill saying it was not an approved procedure, which could have left me holding the bag for another ~$3k if the surgeon had tried to collect. Fortunately he wrote that part off. Also had my PT cut off prematurely by insurance because I wasn't reporting sufficient pain on the patient survey I had to take each appointment (pain isn't the issue for recovery, it's regaining range of motion and strength/stability). The financial cost sucks but its really getting stuck dealing with all the billing and insurance admin BS that adds stress, frustration and uncertainty to the process when you should be focusing on healing.
