WRHA apologizes for another false death-notification call

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This article was published 07/10/2016 (3448 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A second hospital patient in Winnipeg was upgraded to “alive” several weeks ago after a nurse made a mistaken death notification call to a family member.

Lorna Paisley says she was recovering from a respiratory infection at Victoria General Hospital in July when a unit nurse called her husband to tell him he was a widower. A few minutes later, the nurse realized her error and called Paisley’s distraught husband to inform him of the mixup before running to his wife’s room to let her know.

“It was very traumatic,” Paisley, 61, said Friday. “I was just panicking. I thought he would have a heart attack. I dug in my purse for my phone. I wanted him to hear my voice to know for sure.”

The same blunder knocked Daniel Nemis off his feet in September; a Seven Oaks General Hospital nurse called to tell him his 99-year-old mother Sophie, who was being treated for a sprained ankle, had died. In that case, the nurse corrected the error later in the same phone call.

Paisley’s 61-year-old husband Tom said he was stunned when he got the call.

“I just lost it – I was crying,” he said. “I was trying to figure out what the hell happened. I was saying, ‘I just saw her last night and she looked good.'”

He said he sent a message for his son to call him and his boss was driving him home when he got the nurse’s second call.

“I thought it was around 12 to 14 minutes later, but they say eight minutes. Either way, it seemed like a lifetime,” he said. “I was pretty shook up and I said, ‘Thank God, I’m sorry someone had passed away, but I’m glad to hear Lorna is OK.'”

Hospital officials have told the family the nurse picked up the wrong chart and called the wrong next of kin.

“We deeply regret the pain these mistakes have caused,” a Winnipeg Regional Health Authority spokeswoman said Friday, referring to both cases.

“The families involved have experienced tremendous stress as a result of these incidents. The staff, the hospitals involved and the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority are extremely sorry for what they’ve endured. Additional training and review have taken place at the sites where the incidents occurred, and in addition, a review of patient identifier policies is being undertaken region-wide, to emphasize the need for the greatest of care when contacting families under what are extremely difficult circumstances.”

Lorna Paisley said she received two apology letters from WRHA staff in the wake of the error.

In the first, dated Aug. 3, the letter said they wanted to “express our sincere apologies.”

“We realize that this was stressful for you and your family. We are sorry for that experience.”

The letter also said the unit manager was going to remind staff to take extra care in future when notifying families.

In the second letter, dated Sept. 23, Chief Operating Officer Catherine Robbins told Paisley the mistake was taken “very seriously.”

“The nurse that made the error was given additional training to reinforce the importance of following the hospital’s patient identification policy. In fact, as a result of this incident, refresher training on this policy will be a key feature in an upcoming nursing education session that is mandatory for all nurses on our medical units.”

Victoria General Hospital also offered the family a few days of free parking as compensation.

Tom Paisley said he was glad his son didn’t contact him until after the nurse made the second call.

“We all went to the hospital and when we got there they already had PR people there and doctors,” he said. “But I was thinking if I had been driving when I got the first call, who knows what would have happened?”

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca