Officials have confirmed the death of a patient in the waiting room Dr. Everett Chalmers Regional Hospital After a Facebook post by a witness in Frederickton went viral this week.
John Staples, who was in the waiting room on Tuesday, described the scene as “the stark and grim realization that our health system is so tragically broken.”
Global News spoke to Staples, who confirmed what they saw.
He said in an interview that he arrived at the ER around midnight, and the waiting room was quite full. Staples said he saw a man in a wheelchair who was in physical discomfort.
An hour had passed for a nurse to come to examine that particular patient. That’s when Staples noticed that he was not breathing.
“Then three more people came out and they turned the person back and said the code was blue and it was confirmed that the person had passed,” he said.
He said the whole thing showed him how dire the health care situation is.
“They say we have free health care. It looks like it’s coming at the cost of lives.”
Staples said he could tell that the nurses and staff were stressed and very thin and believes those who were there that night did everything possible to save the man’s life.
“The health care system is stretched, they were very stretched, and I can’t even imagine the stress that they would lose a patient in their waiting room,” he said.
The Horizon Health Network confirmed that one person died unexpectedly in the waiting room at the hospital.
The regional health authority said it was investigating the incident.
Horizon CEO Dr. John Dornan said in an emailed statement, “Horizon reviews any unexpected deaths that occur at our facilities to determine what happened and whether further action is needed. “
“As it pertains to this incident, we immediately started the review process. We would like to express our deepest condolences to the family and loved ones of this person.
shared on facebook
The death was confirmed by the health authority after Staples took to social media to post what he saw.
“After more than an hour (after watching 2 half-hour shows on waiting room TV), an ER staffer came out to check on the person. When the ER staff member calmly returned to the ER area, I found that Looked at the person and saw that there is no fluctuation in breathing,” he wrote in the post.
“I was there to see a fellow New Brunswicker pass away in the hospital waiting room,” he said.
In a statement, Health Minister Dorothy Shepherd said she was “deeply saddened and concerned” and had spoken to Dornan from Horizon Health to request a review.
“We know the health care system is facing challenges and frontline workers are working hard. I have no doubt that every New Brunswicker and all of our health care workers are affected by this story. We all want to know that when we go to help he will be there and it can be provided.”
“I look forward to receiving more information from Horizon officials in the coming days as the review progresses and the Department of Health provides our support in any way we can.”
shortage of health workers
The province’s health care system has already been dealing with staffing issues since before the arrival of COVID-19.
It faces significant recruitment and retention issues that only arise from the strain of the pandemic – both infected staff and more patients needing to be hospitalised.
Last weekend, five hospitals were forced to either close emergency departments or reduce their hours amid these staffing issues.
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