Health authority acknowledged racism behind treatment delay at Thompson hospital before man’s cancer death, family says

A Thompson family says the Northern Regional Health Authority has admitted racism was a factor in delayed care received by an Indigenous father who died of cancer last year.

After Stephen Rockwell, a father of three young children who worked as a community safety officer, was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia in February 2023, he received chemotherapy and went into remission in the summer of that year. But when symptoms appeared again in the fall, sister Stacey Rockwell said his concerns weren’t taken seriously during several visits to Thompson General Hospital.

The family is Cree, from Shamattawa First Nation. They say hospital staff accused Stephen of seeking drugs and his obvious red flags — including severe pain and, eventually, crossed eyes — were brushed off.

“There’s no history, and there’s no pattern of him being a drug-seeker. He went there for help, and they didn’t help him,” Stacey said.

“After all of those visits, he was just being dismissed. It got to the point where it was so bad that he couldn’t even walk anymore.”

His mother, Leona Massan, took him to a chiropractor in hopes of easing his pain. They got a note to take back to the hospital indicating the chiropractor felt something concerning in Rockwell’s back. Massan said the doctors disregarded the note and gave him Tylenol.

After continuous pressure, Massan said her son received a CT scan that found tumours all over his body, and he was sent to receive aggressive treatment, including a stem cell transplant.

He died March 13, 2024, at the age of 33. It had been about four months since his leukemia had returned.

“It’s hard to sit here and think of the ‘what if?’ What if, eight weeks prior, they sent him straight to Winnipeg… could he still have more time with us?” Stacey said, noting she was his stem cell donor.

“It wasn’t until the last two months of his life that he was even offered a stem cell transplant.”

Massan still worries that her presence as an Indigenous woman had an impact on his care.

“I feel so guilty,” she said, her voice breaking. “Maybe I shouldn’t have went to the hospital with him. Maybe his dad should have went instead, because his dad doesn’t look Aboriginal… Maybe they would have did something faster.”

Both Rockwell’s sister and mother said he believed racism was playing a role in his treatment, and after he died, they wrote to health officials, including the health minister and the Northern Regional Health Authority, looking for answers.

A spokesperson for Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara said the minister received a letter sent by the family in November 2024 and asked the Northern Regional Health Authority to meet with the family.

Stacey said they finally got a meeting with the Northern Regional Health Authority on July 24, and received the acknowledgement they had fought to get for more than a year.

“They said, ‘Yes, this was stereotyping and racism,’ and they said the system failed him… And then they asked us, ‘How can we do better? And what do you guys need from us to do better?’” she said.

A spokesperson for the Northern Health Region extended condolences to the family in response to a Free Press question about medical racism.

“The region continues actionable steps… including the creation of more Indigenous-specific roles, in person and online education for staff on anti-racism, cultural proficiency and Indigenous cultural safety,” the spokesperson said in an email.

In 2022, the Northern Health Region signed a declaration to address anti-Indigenous racism and acknowledged anti-Indigenous racism “has existed and continues to be present.”

A report from Shared Health published in June analyzing emergency room data found that Black and Indigenous patients waited longer and were more likely than average to leave without being seen by a doctor.

Stacey said she appreciated the acknowledgement and suggested a sharing circle be held with doctors, nurses and administration in her brother’s memory.

“At the end of the day, he’s still not here,” she said, adding that telling his story won’t bring him back, but it might prevent it from happening to someone else.

“It’s for people who’ve also experienced the stereotyping and the racism within the health-care system that died like just like my brother, waiting for an apology or waiting to feel like their life mattered.

“It’s not only sharing my brother’s story, but it’s also being strong and speaking out for those other people, as well, because that’s who Stephen was as a person.”

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca