Lucas Vorgers (80) said his wife, Minie, is expected to have her heart-valve replacement surgery today.
She was originally booked to have the surgery in September last year, but it was delayed at that time because an acute case took precedence.
Her surgery was rescheduled for April 16 this year, but did not go ahead because of the junior doctors' strike.
He said it was distressing watching Mrs Vorgers' condition deteriorate, until she was so sick she had to be admitted as an acute patient.
Mr Vorgers said he was not against the right of junior doctors to strike, but he questioned whether it could be done in a better way, possibly with half the doctors on strike for one day and the other half the next so the impact on patients would be lessened.
As a plumber, he knew that if a master craftsman plumber refused to attend to a sewer blockage it would be deemed a health hazard and the plumber would be fined or face other consequences.
"I would like the junior doctors to sit down . . . and have the courage to say, `We probably got that wrong.' "He said he could not fault the treatment of Mrs Vorgers by the hospital - "it's a house of compassion once you're in.
A lot of people don't know how beautiful the hospital is.
Compassion is oozing out of them."
Otago District Health Board chief medical officer Richard Bunton, who recently drew attention to delays caused by strikes, said situations like that of Mrs Vorgers did not happen often, but they were not a rare occurrence either.
It was naturally preferable to carry out procedures before patients had reached an acute state.
There would be some people who would have had surgical procedures cancelled twice, for reasons including pressure of acute admissions and shortage of staff, along with the surgery days lost because of the two 48-hour strikes.
The strikes were exacerbating the situation caused by short-staffing.
It was frustrating and disappointing for both patients and staff.
Resident Doctors Association Dunedin representative Dr Logan Mitchell said any form of strike action would have an impact on some patients, even if Mr Vorgers' suggestion were followed.
The doctors did not undertake strikes lightly and the life-preserving arrangements they made with the board were designed in the hope of avoiding adverse clinical outcomes. He was hopeful there would be no further need for strikes, but he was concerned there were no negotiations occurring between the parties.
Junior doctors will have stopwork meetings around the country next week.
