Family of woman found frozen learns she was pregnant when she died

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This article was published 04/01/2018 (2878 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Windy Gayle Sinclair, found last week dead and frozen in a city back alley, was two months pregnant when she died, her mother told the Free Press.

When Eleanor Sinclair sat down Thursday with representatives of the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority, she expected to get more information about their investigation into the circumstances of her daughter’s disappearance from a local hospital on Christmas Day.

Instead, she was asked if she knew her 29-year-old daughter was pregnant.

“I just broke down. I started to cry. Because, to me, once she was pregnant, that’s my grandchild. That’s how we view it in my family. It was already my grandchild. So to hear that, it was just devastating. To me, I lost my daughter and I lost my grandchild,” she said.

Sinclair said her meeting with WRHA officials raised more questions than answers, including whether staff at Seven Oaks General Hospital called a “code yellow” after her daughter disappeared from the treatment room.

A “code yellow” kicks-in an expanded search should a patient leave without informing staff before care is complete, according to a WRHA spokeswoman. The WRHA is investigating whether such an alert was issued for Windy Sinclair.

Eleanor Sinclair also wonders why her daughter wasn’t detained by hospital staff.

A patient can be held against their will under the Mental Health Act, should it be determined they pose a risk to themselves or others. In addition, a patient may be held under the Intoxicated Persons Detention Act, depending on the presentation of the patient and their needs.

The WRHA is investigating whether anything could have been done differently in the handing of Windy Sinclair, between being taken by paramedics from her grandparents’ home and disappearing from hospital before 11:15 p.m. on Dec. 25.

Upon her arrival at Seven Oaks, the mother of four underwent an initial assessment by a nurse and was soon after seen by a physician, a WRHA spokeswoman said Thursday.

WRHA records indicate the physician ordered some tests, left, and returned sometime later with the results, but did not find the patient in the treatment room.

It is not known what happened between Windy Sinclair leaving the hospital, and being found Dec. 28 dead and frozen in a small lane separating two apartment complexes on the 300 block of Furby Street, some 10 kilometres south.

Winnipeg Police Services have said they are not investigating her death as a homicide. According to a spokesman for the Chief Medical Examiner’s office, a final determination of the cause of death may not be made until spring. Once that happens, the information will be sent to her family, but will not be made public, the spokesman said.

Eleanor Sinclair said she was told by the chief nursing officer for Seven Oaks that her daughter was two months pregnant.

The news was the latest in a long string of losses for Sinclair. Her son, Robert Sinclair, went missing in Winnipeg in 2011. Five months later, he was found dead.

She was informed of her daughter’s death on Dec. 29, two years to the day that her husband died. Six days later, she said she feels as if she’s also lost a grandchild.

Sinclair will again be sitting down with WRHA officials Friday.

“I want answers, and they weren’t forthcoming. They were mostly trying to cover themselves. Why would they leave her in the room when she’s clearly under the influence? Why didn’t they keep a better eye on her? Why didn’t they look after her safety?” she said.

In addition, Sinclair also feels the fact her daughter was an Indigenous woman struggling with addiction led to the quality of care she received.

“I feel they failed her because she was a native woman. They failed me as a mother because they didn’t notify me when she left on her own. When I called, they tell me she’s treated and discharged. It takes calling back for them to tell me the truth,” she said.

“Why? Because it’s just another native woman. Just another native woman that passed away. Just another native woman who goes missing.

“There’s so many missing and murdered Indigenous women. We should matter.”

ryan.thorpe@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @rk_thorpe