Court asked to turf lawsuit filed by family of woman who died

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This article was published 24/07/2023 (775 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Shared Health and Keewatin Air have asked a Manitoba court to turf a lawsuit filed against them by the family of an intensive care patient who died after a failed attempt to airlift her to Ontario at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic’s third wave.

Krystal Mousseau, a 31-year-old mother of two from Ebb and Flow First Nation, died May 25, 2021, after an aborted medical flight from Brandon to an Ottawa hospital for care.

At the time, some Manitoba patients were being flown elsewhere in Canada for care, as local ICUs were full.

According to the family lawsuit, Mousseau was on a ventilator and in a medical coma for COVID-19 issues.

She was to be transported to Ottawa the day prior, but was transferred back to Brandon hospital when her condition deteriorated, where she died.

In March, her family filed suit in the Court of King’s Bench against the Manitoba government, health authorities and the airline, as well as two flight staff and a Brandon ICU nurse, arguing the defendants breached their duty to care for Mousseau.

The family claim Mousseau’s death was wrongful and preventable, asking the court to hold the province responsible for cutting critical-care beds, contracting out air ambulance service, and failing to properly plan for the COVID-19 pandemic.

The statements of defence, recently reviewed by the Free Press but filed in May, outline the respective defendants’ denials.

Shared Health, the Prairie Mountain Health Authority and Brandon Regional Health Centre filed a joint statement of defence. The health agencies are asking for the court to dismiss the lawsuit, with costs.

The province, too, recently filed legal paperwork in the lawsuit over Mousseau’s 2021 death: a notice of motion seeking to have itself removed from the lawsuit, arguing the only allegations against Manitoba relate to core policy decisions of government that cannot be the subject of a claim of negligence.

The notice of motion notes, under provincial legislation, regional health authorities exercise autonomy in delivering health services.

Mousseau’s family is seeking financial compensation and a court declaration the government and Shared Health violated her charter right to life and security of person.

In the claim, the family argues Shared Health’s decision to move Mousseau was done not to benefit her, but to free up an ICU bed.

The joint statement of defence says the health agencies deny they breached their duty or legal obligation to Mousseau when she died.

Further, it says, the defendants deny the family has any valid claim under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, arguing some of the allegations are irrelevant to the lawsuit.

Winnipeg-based Keewatin Air filed its own statement of defence, also asking the court to dismiss the claim, with costs.

The family allege airline staff were improperly trained, causing Mousseau to go into shock before she was transferred back to Brandon’s ICU, and the airline was not licensed to provide airlift services — both of which Keewatin denies in its legal filing.

The airline says it had the proper licensing and government approval to operate medical air services, its employees were properly trained, and appropriately consulted with hospital staff.

“(Keewatin Air) provided appropriate treatment to Krystal… and denies that any or omission by it caused Krystal’s death,” the filing says.

None of the allegations made in the statement of claim — or denials in the statements of defence — have been proven in court.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca