Allegations of non-treatment follow Norway House child death

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This article was published 30/06/2022 (1437 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A mother is seeking answers after her two-year-old daughter died one day after staff at a northern nursing station reportedly sent her home without being examined.

Angel Tyo said her daughter, Santaya, was found lifeless on a couch in her home on Tuesday. On Monday, she had sought medical help at the nursing station on Norway House Cree Nation because the child was having trouble breathing and had a temperature.

On Thursday, Tyo didn’t want to talk to the Free Press. However, in a text message to her sister, NDP MLA Bernadette Smith, detailing what happened, she said: “I want justice for (my) baby girl… I want to fight. I wanna put it out there that this is not right and she was only a baby.”

Smith said her sister told her she was so worried about her daughter’s breathing that she slept with the child Sunday night.

Norway House is 450 kilometres north of Winnipeg.

However, Smith said, because her niece — who the Point Douglas MLA described as “just a super happy kid” — was smiling when she arrived, the nurses sent her home without examining the child, saying: “Keep the temperature down.”

On Tuesday, Tyo went out to do some errands, leaving Santaya with her teenage siblings, Smith said.

“She came home and was told (Santaya) fell asleep on the couch and when she went over she found she was deceased,” the MLA said. “She ran to get help.

“My sister knows her baby and only took her in because she knew something wasn’t right, but they dismissed her. Santaya was her seventh of eight children. She knows when a child is sick and needs to be seen. My sister is devastated. We are going up north (Friday) to support her.”

Smith said her sister had to leave the home (before being allowed back in Thursday) due to an RCMP investigation into the death.

“They are going to do an autopsy, but we will also push for an inquest so something like this doesn’t happen again,” the MLA said. “This was at ground zero for Jordan’s Principle.”

Smith was referring to the case involving Jordan River Anderson, who was born with complex medical needs in Norway House.

Anderson was cared for in hospital in Winnipeg for the first two years of his life, but spent another two years there while the federal and provincial governments argued over who would pay for his care in home at the northern Manitoba First Nation. He died in 2005, at five years of age.

Named after Anderson, Jordan’s Principle is to ensure all First Nations children living in Canada can get the services and supports they need, including health, social and educational.

It’s not the first time tragedy has touched the family.

Tyo and Smith are sisters of Claudette Osborne-Tyo, 21, who has been missing since she was last seen July 25, 2008, in Winnipeg.

The Norway House chief could not be reached for comment.

Ottawa will carry out a patient safety review following the girl’s death.

It will be co-led by Indigenous Services Canada and an external review team, said ISC spokeswoman Maddy Warlow.

The review will include a debriefing with ISC staff involved in the case, an examination of patient records and any recommendations to improve care.

“The health and well-being of Indigenous Peoples and communities is a high priority for our government, and our thoughts are with the family for their loss,” Warlow wrote in an email.

— with files from Chris Kitching

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca