Nurse manager who witnessed colleague’s stabbing sues Seven Oaks hospital, WRHA over dismissal after PTSD diagnosis

A former psychiatric nurse who witnessed the aftermath of a stabbing that severely injured a longtime friend and colleague alleges she was wrongfully terminated after being traumatized by the event.

Lori Schellenberg filed a lawsuit against Seven Oaks General Hospital and the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority in the Court of King’s Bench last week, claiming she was dismissed from work in December 2023 due to the state of her mental health.

Schellenberg, 50, was working in the hospital on Oct. 27, 2021, when Trevor Robert Farley entered the building and attacked her co-worker Candyce Szkwarek — stabbing her about 20 times in the back, chest, abdomen and neck before throwing her to the ground.

“It was a surreal and chaotic scene that required (Schellenberg’s) immediate and life-saving intervention,” the lawsuit says. “Shortly thereafter, (she) was diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder.”

Schellenberg, who was in a senior management position in the hospital’s renal program, “provided crisis management to bystanders and other hospital staff” in the aftermath of the attack, it says.

Farley — who also worked as a nurse at the hospital — was experiencing a psychotic episode when he stabbed his mother Judy Swain and father Stuart Farley to death in separate incidents earlier that day.

Schellenberg testified in court in October 2023, when King’s Bench Justice Ken Champagne found Farley not criminally responsible for the slayings and the attack on Szkwarek.

“To this day, I struggle with (the PTSD diagnosis) and can’t believe that this is still deeply affecting me,” she said at the time. “There has not been a day since the incident that I have been able to be anxiety-free…. This event has truly been one of the toughest life challenges I have had to deal with.”

According to the lawsuit, Schellenberg continued working at the hospital after the incident, but demonstrated psychiatric symptoms. Her psychologist excused her from work in mid-December 2021.

Over the following months and years, she received ongoing and regular treatment from her psychologist, psychiatrist and physician. She remained “highly motivated” to return to work in her previous position of patient care team manager in the renal program, it says.

Schellenberg began a gradual return to work at the hospital in late March 2023, but experienced challenges in the workplace. The lawsuit claims hospital management repeatedly questioned her about her health, telling her “she didn’t look healthy” and her return to work was “too aggressive.”

In May 2023, Schellenberg was relocated to an office position “to her great disappointment,” the lawsuit says.

“Not being given the opportunity to work on the renal unit of the hospital where she could do meaningful work and adapt to her ultimate working environment was counter-productive to her recovery and return to work,” the claim says.

A new patient care team manager was hired to lead the hospital’s renal program in July 2023, with no advance notice to Schellenberg. Her psychologist then recommended she stop working at the hospital until she could find more suitable employment within the health authority, the lawsuit says.

Schellenberg’s employment was terminated in December of that year.

“The plaintiff was given no indication by the defendants that her job was in jeopardy,” the claim says. “The defendants knew at the time of the termination that the plaintiff was suffering from post traumatic stress disorder and that the plaintiff was in a very fragile mental and emotional state.”

Rather than providing support to cope with the stabbing, the defendants “seized upon this opportunity to dismiss her,” Schellenberg alleges.

The lawsuit describes the firing as “shockingly harsh, malicious and reprehensible and done in bad faith,” claiming the hospital, health authority and their agents treated Schellenberg in “an inhumane, callous and oppressive manner.”

Schellenberg began working for the health authority in 2007, and was promoted three times over the years. During that time, she had no incidents of misconduct, she said.

She believes her dismissal, age and ongoing mental and physical distress will limit her ability to return to health care. The lawsuit seeks an assortment of damages, and a declaration from the hospital and the health authority that she was wrongfully dismissed.

The defendants have not yet responded to the lawsuit, and Schellenberg’s claims have not been tested in court.

A spokesperson for WRHA declined to comment on the lawsuit, saying the health authority does not comment on ongoing litigation.

tyler.searle@freepress.mb.ca