Winnipeg mom wants answers after son disappears from Grace Hospital mental health unit
Charity McLellan says it took hospital staff hours to call police
Charity McLellan remembers running in a panic out of the Grace Hospital mental health unit on Friday when she realized her 19-year-old son wasn't there.
McLellan's son Ozzy was located later that night, after many hours and a call to police — but she questions how he ever simply walked out of the hospital, where he was being treated for undiagnosed mental health issues, and why it took staff so long to respond.
The incident happened only two months after Catherine Curtis, 60, left the mental health unit and never returned. Curtis's body was found in Sturgeon Creek nine days after she disappeared.
- Catherine Curtis's body found in Sturgeon Creek in Winnipeg
- Missing woman's daughter questions why hospital let mom go out unsupervised
McLellan went to the mental health unit at around 1 p.m. to see her son and take him on a Canada Day outing. Ozzy was admitted less than two weeks ago, she said.
When she went to her son's room he wasn't there. She told the nurses, who said they would get a health care aid to look for Ozzy, and she went to look on her own outside.
"I went running downstairs," she said. "I started pulling people on my way to Woodhaven Park. People said yeah, they saw him."
McLellan immediately called police to inform them her son had disappeared from the hospital.
'It took hours'
About two hours after she called police, she was told by hospital staff that Ozzy had in fact left, she said.
"What the nurse who was on staff told me was that she was letting another patient out. She was busy at the desk," McLellan said.
"When she pushed the button she didn't look to see who was going out, and [Ozzy] ran with his bags … and he got out the door with the person who was leaving."
The nurse said they were just about to call police, McLellan said, adding "it took hours."
"I was pretty appalled."
Ozzy eventually was in contact with his father and he was safely taken back to the hospital.
McLellan said she feels lucky her son was safe, especially considering Curtis left the hospital on April 25 and her body was found in Sturgeon Creek, near the hospital, nine days later.
Health authority investigating
The Winnipeg Regional Health Authority said they will investigate the circumstances around how Ozzy got out.
"We are sorry about the anxiety this family has experienced. We are happy that the patient was returned safely to our care," the health authority said in an emailed statement.
"We are reaching out to the family in order to address their specific concerns and arrange to follow up with them to discuss the care plan going forward."
The health authority said they took extra precautions over the weekend, including adding extra staff.
"Many patients, even those within locked units, work towards extending privileges outside the unit both in a supervised capacity and graduating to unsupervised," the statement said.
'It reopened everything'
When Curtis's daughter Janelle DePeazer heard another patient had gone missing from Grace Hospital, her heart sank, she said.
"[I] just felt like it reopened everything about what happened to my mom, the care that she received at Grace Hospital," DePeazer said, adding she feels "a real concern" for patients at the hospital and the level of care they're receiving.
"This is a sensitive ward with issues that need some care and need some dignity and respect, and my family just didn't feel like that's what my mom had received at that point in time," DePeazer said.
Curtis's family has been meeting with the hospital since her death, DePeazer said.
"I just don't feel like perhaps much has changed. I know they say that they're working on things. I have yet to be informed of what those things are in a concrete manner," she said. "But still, I am very concerned and I personally would not want any of my family members at that hospital."
with files from Kristy Hoffman