Inquest plays call made to 911 after Ont. doctor stabbed nurse
The family of nurse Lori Dupont, killed on the job two years ago by an estranged boyfriend who worked at the same hospital in Windsor, Ont., heard for the first time Monday the frantic 911 call made the day she was stabbed.
Relativesof the 37-year-old recovery room nurse wept as the seven-minute tape played during the first day of an inquest into the deaths of Dupont and 50-year-old Dr. Marc Daniel.
On Nov. 12, 2005, Daniel hid in a recovery room and then stabbed Dupont seven times in the chest with a hunting knife at Hôtel-Dieu Grace Hospital.
Shortly after the killing, apparently prompted by the couple's breakup, police found Daniel unconscious from a drug overdose. He died several days later in what was ruled a suicide.
Judging by the 911 call to a dispatcher that day, it seemed "the security people at the hospital did not know what was going on," the CBC's Dale Molnar said Monday from the southwestern Ontario city.
On the recording, security staff can be heard erroneously referring to the murder suspect as "Marc Daniels," Molnar reported.
The inquest heard early Monday from a Windsor detective, who recounted the murder. The detective also described how police found Daniel's unconscious body at the riverfront near downtown Windsor.
The inquest is expected to last eight weeks. The jury will hear from about 50 witnesses.
A lawyer representing the Dupont family said although the hearings would open up old wounds for the family, they were willing to endure the process if it could prevent similar events.
Domestic violence examined
The inquest is expected to examine issues around domestic violence and harassment in the workplace, and could bring about occupational health and safety recommendations that might affect hospitals and other work environments across Canada.
Dupont's mother, Barbara, told the CBC last week that she considered the inquest a way to find answers "as to how and why the system failed Lori, and as a means to bring about positive changes within the system so that what happened to Lori doesn't happen to anyone else's daughter, sister, [or] mother."
Among the questions the Duponts want answered is why Hôtel-Dieu allowed Daniel to continue working as an anesthesiologist, even though he had tried to commit suicide a few months earlier.
Hospital administrators also said they were aware before the killing that Daniel had been stalking and harassing Dupont for months following their breakup.
Murder an 'unforeseen event': hospital
In its internal report released in August 2006, Hôtel-Dieu called the fatal stabbing an "unforeseen event" that would have been impossible to predict.
Barbara Dupont has speculated the hospital was so understaffed that administrators allowed Daniel to return to work alongside Dupont on a skeleton crew, despite Daniel's personal problems.
Among the witnesses expected to testify in the next two months before coroner Dr. Andrew McCaullum will be Daniel's psychiatrist, Daniel's wife, several nurses who worked closely with Dupont and Daniel, and Dupont's family members.