Heather Brenan needed to stay in hospital, doctor tells inquest
Woman collapsed outside her home after being discharged from Seven Oaks Hospital in 2012
One of two doctors from the Winnipeg hospital that sent Heather Brenan home in a taxi told an inquest into her death that she should have stayed in hospital.
Dr. Stanley Whyte testified on Tuesday that the 68-year-old woman appeared to be "profoundly dehydrated" when he saw her at Seven Oaks Hospital on Jan. 24, 2012.
Whyte told the inquest that he ran tests showing that Brenan had kidney failure and high blood pressure. She needed to stay in hospital, he said.
Instead, Brenan was discharged and driven home from Seven Oaks by a cab driver at around 11 p.m. CT on Jan. 27, 2012.
She did not have her house keys and collapsed just outside her home. She was rushed back to hospital, but died shortly afterward from a blood clot that had moved to her lungs.
Whyte testified that in addition to the kidney failure and high blood pressure, Brenan had esophagitis, which is the inflammation of the esophagus.
He said patients who are very ill need to be treated by a family physician in a hospital ward, but he added that there were not enough beds at the time.
Whyte testified that at the time Brenan was in the hospital, "there was not enough family doctors to take care of patients in the ER."
He could not say how many patients he saw that night, but he said it was "an extremely busy day."
He told the inquest that changes have been made, as there are now more family doctors available to assist patients in the emergency room.
Brenan had potential to be discharged, inquest hears
Dr. Sheldon Swirsky also testified on Tuesday.
He treated Heather Brenan the day before she was discharged from hospital.
Swirsky said test results showed her kidney function was improving and that nurses had told him her mobility was limited but functional.
He said in his view, she had the potential to be discharged, pending further tests.
After Tuesday's testimony wrapped up, it remained unclear if those tests were ever ordered or whether her charts were thoroughly reviewed.
Swisky testified sometimes doctors don't always pass along their notes to other doctors.
'I've been told so many versions'
"I really want to find out what happened. I've been told so many versions of the same event," Brenan's daughter, Dana Brenan, said outside the Winnipeg courthouse.
The inquest heard on Monday from Brenan and Nayda Northage, a friend of Heather Brenan's who went with her to the hospital.
Northage testified that Brenan did not want to be discharged. Dana Brenan said her mother had been in the emergency room at Seven Oaks but was never given a bed.
"She was supposed to be admitted at some point in the four days she was stuck in the emergency room. Somebody made the decision that she could go home, but she wasn't well enough," Brenan said. "They never got to the point of investigating or treating why she was so dehydrated ... her kidney function improved, [and they got] rid of her. And that's really what I feel happened."
Brenan listened to the doctors' testimony on Tuesday and said her mom should have been sent to another hospital.
"I didn't realize that it's the second-busiest emergency room in the city, and yet it doesn't have enough staff to take care of all the patients coming in," said Brenan. "Doctors have to prioritize who gets a bed ... Seven Oaks just keeps on taking patients, whether they can care for them or not."
Brenan said it has been an extremely expensive process to get answers about her mother's death.
Since her mother died, she's had to cash out her RRSPs and take out a line of credit to pay for a lawyer to pursue the case.
The Winnipeg Regional Health Authority says it introduced region-wide discharge policies for emergency departments following Brenan's death.