Jeff Adair / CC
A social media post about a man who died in an E-R waiting room is bringing awareness to the state of New Brunswick’s healthcare system.
John Staples was at the Dr. Everett Chalmers Hospital in Fredericton on Tuesday, when the incident happened.
“I was there in the waiting room of the hospital and I saw this gentleman sitting in his wheelchair in obvious discomfort for quite some time. I was there with one of my residents, I’m a Human Service Counselor Residential Support Worker. We had a medical emergency so I’d gone in to attend with my residents. We were sitting there essentially right in front of the gentleman for a few hours, and then I did move my resident so that they could see the television that was on the wall a little better. So with my focus being on my resident, of course, I wasn’t solely focused on the gentleman in a wheelchair. He seemed to go to sleep, or what appeared to be going to sleep,” Staples told Acadia News.
“We’d watched a couple of half-hour shows on the TV when the ER attendants came out and checked everyone as they do, and they checked him and I noticed that the ER attendant, very professionally, chose not to alert anyone, and rushed back into the ER department. Having been in the healthcare profession for many years, as a healthcare worker, it did kind of catch my attention. So I looked at the gentleman and noticed that there was no rise and fall of the chest and abdomen. So I knew at that point he had passed. A few more ER attendants came out and they wheeled him back and called the Code Blue as they were going back.”
He describes it as a surreal moment, “Sitting in the emergency department waiting to be seen and you don’t get that far. I don’t know what that person’s ailment was and I don’t know if the passing was caused by the aliment or something else. The fact of the matter is, it was a gentleman who passed away in the ER waiting room.”
Staples struggled with the decision of whether to post about it or not on social media.
He decided it was important to raise awareness, noting “I didn’t ever expect it to explode the way it did. It has well over 4000 shares now so that’s very surprising, but I’m glad that people are picking this up and running with it because something needs to change.”
In a statement, Horizon Health network confirmed the patient’s death took place in the Emergency Department (ED) waiting room at Horizon’s Dr. Everett Chalmers Regional Hospital on July 12th.
“Horizon thoroughly reviews any unexpected deaths that occur in our facilities to determine what took place and whether further action is required. As it relates to this incident, we immediately started the review process. We would like to extend our deepest sympathies to this individual’s family and loved ones,” added President and CEO, Dr. John Dornan.
Meantime, the Liberal Health Critic Jean-Claude D’Amours is calling for the resignation of the Minister of Health.
“Time and time again, we have demanded to see the Minister’s plan to recruit desperately needed health care professionals. The province must immediately free up enough of
its huge surpluses to address the staffing issues in our hospitals. Premier Higgs needs to stop whining to the federal government, and demand that his Minister of Health resign and get on with saving our health care system before it’s too late.”
