Mother sues WRHA, Victoria General Hospital when daughter dies hours after leaving ER
Woman, 25, was sent home with medication to treat pneumonia, but was found dead a few hours later
After the death of her 25-year-old daughter only a few hours following a trip to the emergency room, a mother alleges the Victoria General Hospital in Winnipeg was careless, negligent and discharged the young woman too soon.
In a statement of claim filed at Manitoba's Court of Queen's Bench last week, the woman says hospital staff and a doctor discharged her daughter when they should have known it was unsafe.
The mother, who now lives in Toronto, alleges in the claim that the hospital's negligence contributed to her daughter's death.
She is suing the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority, the hospital and medical staff for general damages, to be determined in court, and other damages including funeral expenses.
None of the claims have been proven in court. Defendants in Manitoba have 20 days to file a statement of defence, while those outside the province have 40 days.
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In the afternoon on July 8, 2015, the daughter called her mother saying she felt weak and had a severe headache, as well as a swollen tongue and throat, the statement of claim said.
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The mother and daughter went to the Victoria hospital emergency room around 4:30 p.m. By that time, the daughter was also disoriented, the lawsuit said.
The mother alleges in the lawsuit it took hours for personnel at the hospital to finally see her daughter, and the daughter was so confused and weak she kept slipping out of her seat.
The claim also said the mother had to repeatedly ask for blood work and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for her daughter.
The blood tests showed that the daughter had higher than normal white blood cell count, the lawsuit said, and an X-ray showed the presence of a right upper lobe infiltrate, which means there was something like fluid or bacteria showing up on the lungs, according to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. It often shows up with people who have pneumonia.
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The lawsuit said the mother told hospital staff that her daughter also had a procedure called endoscopic thoracic sympathectomy (ETS) five weeks before arriving at the hospital. But the mother alleges the information was not recorded on the forms.
ETS procedures are usually done to treat excessive sweating and involve incisions made in the underarm area allowing doctors to get to a nerve near the spine, which is then clipped or cauterized, according to a 2007 study published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Minimal Access Surgery.
The daughter was prescribed a five-day course of the antibiotic azithromycin, which is used to treat bacterial infections including pneumonia, the statement of claim said.
Sent home too soon, mother says
The doctor gave the daughter a discharge notice at 4:23 a.m. the next day, about 12 hours after they entered the hospital, the statement of claim said. But the mother alleged they weren't given a reason for being discharged, and there were no instructions about continuing treatment or care.
An hour later the mother and daughter left the hospital and went home, the lawsuit says.
The daughter tried to take two of the pills she was prescribed, but it was too hard with her throat swollen, so she just went to bed, the statement of claim said.
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Three hours after leaving the hospital, the daughter was found face down and unresponsive in her bed, the the statement of claim said. Not long after she was pronounced dead.
An autopsy revealed the cause of death was "probable acute arrhythmia" (irregular heart rhythm), the statement of claim said. The report said it probably happened because the heart didn't receive enough oxygen, which was related to an underlying conductive heart disorder.
The mother alleges in the statement of claim the death could have been prevented if hospital staff had gotten her daughter's medical history and performed more tests to find the underlying condition.
The mother alleges the hospital "carelessly, negligently, erroneously" and unsafely discharged her daughter from the hospital prematurely while she was still unstable and undiagnosed.
A spokesperson with the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority said she cannot discuss a matter that is before the courts.
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