Grieving mother says she warned Waterford staff her son was suicidal
Says she urged staff to keep close watch on her troubled son
The mother of a man who died at the Waterford psychiatric hospital in St. John's earlier this month says she pleaded with staff to keep a very close watch on her son because he was threatening to take his own life.
Joanne Calhoun told CBC News Friday that her son's death could have been avoided if her warnings had been headed.
That did not happen, however, and Kerry Murray committed suicide on March 13. He used his pyjamas to hang himself, said his mother.
"This could have been prevented, and I'd have my son," Calhoun said during a telephone interview from Edmonton, where she resides.
The incident became public Thursday after Eastern Health announced it had terminated three employees at the Waterford following a death on the hospital's forensic unit.
CEO David Diamond also said the health authority will be bringing in a group from outside the province, one with forensic and mental health expertise, to conduct an external review of the incident.
Diamond said the "system failed the client."
Specifically, regular surveillance ordered for the patient was not carried out by the staff involved, Diamond explained.
Calhoun said she was told her son was to be monitored every 15 minutes.
She said she felt this was not enough, and was told "we'll see what we can do."
Mother says her son was a loving person
Calhoun said her son was taken to the Waterford after breaching a peace bond, ordering him not to have contact with his estranged wife.
Calhoun said her son sent a text message to his mother-in-law.
She said her son was struggling with mental health issues, brought on after he was sexually assaulted while serving a prison sentence for robbery in another province.
She said this was his first run-in with the law since 2004.
"He was a very loving person. He wanted to receive love," said Calhoun.
She explained that her son moved to Newfoundland at the encouragement of a woman he met in Alberta, but she later returned to western Canada.
He also had two children, aged 15 and 16, but did not see them very often, Calhoun said.
Calhoun said her son was making plans to return to Edmonton.
"He said he wanted to be home with me because he wanted to live a normal life, and that I helped him all my life and now he said it's his turn to help me."
Calhoun said she's devastated by her son's death, and that she holds the health authority responsible.
"They're negligent," she said, noting that an alarm should have been raised when he closed to the door to his room.
Calhoun said she's now in a legal battle over her son's estate.
With files from Amy Stoodley