Doctor's fatal attack on nurse 'unforeseen': hospital

A report released Wednesdayby a Windsor hospital concluded there was no way of predicting one of its doctors would fatally stab a nurse he had previously been in a relationship with.

A Hôtel-Dieu Grace Hospital committee set up an internal investigation after Lori Dupont, 37, was stabbed to death in a surgery recovery room last November.

Dr. Marc Daniel, 50, was charged with first-degree murder but died three days after the stabbing, the result of a self-administered overdose of medication.

"It is clear from this report that the murder was an unforeseen event and was not predicted by anyone," said board chairman Bill Marra.

Few staff members and no one among the large hospital's top administration agreed to participate in the in-house probe, according to the Windsor Star.

Dupont's mother, father, sister and grandmother are suing the hospital, its administrators, Daniel's estate and his psychiatrist for $13.5 million.

In March, Ontario's chief coroner announced an inquest would be held into the deaths.

Dupont applied for a restraining order against the anesthesiologistin April 2005. She was provided guarded escorts to and from her vehicle.

At the time, Daniel was already under a 12-month probation, the result of formal grievances filed the previous year by two other nurses.

He had also attempted suicide after a domestic dispute with Dupont in February of that year. Three months later, he was allowed to return to work in the operating room, under medical supervision.

After the suicide attempt, he had been given a provisional diagnosis of bipolar disease and then put on a regimen of medication and psychiatric care.

The committeehad no conclusion as to whyDaniel's annual reappointment application, a requirement for Ontario physicians,was never signed by his supervisorsor forwarded, as is required under the Public Hospitals Act.

Despite ongoing informal complaints and concerns expressed to supervisors and managers, the hospital's review committee said that Dupont did not put any of her concerns in writing and no grievance was filed by the Ontario Nurses Association.