Death of patient being treated for swollen hand sparks critical incident review

The mother of a Winnipeg nurse has died after reportedly waiting more than 30 hours inside a city emergency room, sparking a critical incident review and a secondary investigation led by the health minister.

News of the death circulated widely on social media Wednesday, after the patient’s daughter published a post detailing her attempt to get care for her mother, whose condition deteriorated as she waited for hours on a stretcher in the hallway of the Grace Hospital over the weekend.

Premier Wab Kinew acknowledged the death during question period on Wednesday, saying Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara has spoken with the daughter.

“The details that we see in this post are very, very disturbing and are calling many, many things into question. As a matter of course, a critical incident has been launched,” he said in the legislature.

“There seems to have been some errors made in the care for this person, who we lost far too soon. But beyond that, it would seem that there are other issues at play — potentially systemic ones — and on account of that, our minister of health has committed to doing an additional investigation, beyond the (critical incident) report to get to the bottom of just what went wrong here.”

The Free Press has reached out to the daughter of the patient.

Her post says her mother went to the Minor Injury and Illness and Injury clinic on Corydon Avenue on Nov. 16, where she was treated for a swollen wrist and hand. She then went to the minor injury clinic at the Misericordia Health Centre on Thursday, after steroids she was given to treat the problem did not work.

Misericordia staff felt the woman needed further care, including intravenous antibiotics, and referred her to the Grace Hospital where she was admitted at about 7 p.m. that day, the post said.

The woman remained at the Grace Hospital on a stretcher in the hallway until about 6 a.m. Saturday, when she was then transferred to the St. Boniface Hospital. By then, medical staff “were in life-saving mode and very little could be done,” the post said.

“She became confused. Not knowing why she was at the hospital. She was rediscovering her swollen hand every three minutes. She went from walking and taking and being able to give her medical history and details to weak and confused in less than 24 hours,” it said.

“The system is broken and so is my heart.”

The ordeal lasted more than 30 hours, the post said.

Manitoba Nurses Union president Darlene Jackson said she knows the woman who made the post, and confirmed she is a nurse.

The Winnipeg Regional Health Authority confirmed the patient who died was Genevieve Price.

Further details about the situation, including the patient’s age and diagnosis, are being withheld due to privacy legislation, said Kerstin Jordan, the health authority’s chief nursing officer, in a statement.

“We have extended our deepest condolences to Ms. Price’s family and acknowledge the profound loss they are experiencing,” Jordan said.

“Our patient safety team has begun a comprehensive review into the circumstances that led to the incident. Hospital leadership and our patient relations team will remain in touch with the family, and they will be invited to participate in the review and creation of improvement recommendations.”

Oppostion Leader Obby Khan blamed Kinew and Asagwara for the death.

“To the family, and all Manitobans watching, I’m sorry. I’m sorry that this premier and health minister didn’t do better by you,” he said.

tyler.searle@freepress.mb.ca