Negligence, bias blamed in death of elderly Indigenous woman at Grace Hospital
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Negligence and bias are being blamed in a newly-filed lawsuit for the death two years ago of a 68-year-old Indigenous woman at a Winnipeg hospital.
“The unconscious bias of personnel against (Jean) Kemash due to her Indigenous status was part of the chain of negligent acts and misconduct of the Defendants that led to the death,” reads a statement of claim filed last week by Kelly Medwick, Kemash’s daughter.
The statement of claim names the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority (WRHA) and the Grace Hospital, as well as two doctors and two nurses as defendants.
According to the lawsuit, Kemash, who had a long history of health related issues, checked into the Grace Hospital’s emergency room suffering with respiratory and febrile symptoms on April 15, 2022, after three to four days of progressive shortness of breath and chills.
The lawsuit claims what followed was a series of negligent acts that ultimately led to the death of the wife, mother and grandmother.
Kemash was admitted to the hospital in the care of a doctor who the lawsuit says completed a bedside assessment. Days later, on April 18, she was moved to a resuscitation room in the ER at around 1:40 p.m., due to her becoming “increasingly medically unstable, as manifested by increased confusion and disorientation, hypotension and hypoxia.”
An ER doctor ordered a chest x-ray and blood work on April 18 for Kemash, the lawsuit says, but there are “no further notes indicating his impression or interpretation of the test results.” The lawsuit says Kemash continued to have “escalating oxygen requirements” throughout the day.
That same ER doctor, and the doctor that admitted Kemash also had a telephone conversation on April 18, and the admitting doctor said he planned to return and re-examine her, but did not return, the lawsuit claims.
Kemash was moved to the in-patient ward at around 10 p.m., and was put under the care of a physician, as well as a psychiatry resident who was the on-site physician that evening, after completing his four-week internal medicine residency, the lawsuit says.
According to the lawsuit, the resident doctor did not consult with the admitting doctor, and was not qualified or competent to care for Kemash.
A nurse who is named in the lawsuit “failed to follow procedure” after Kemash was connected to a respiratory monitoring device, and failed to check on her regularly, or give her medications as scheduled, says the lawsuit.
That same nurse applied restraints to Kemash’s wrists after 3 a.m. the next morning, “in a manner inconsistent with the WRHA and the hospital policy,” for reasons the lawsuit says are unknown.
Around 5:20 a.m., Kemash became agitated and her shortness of breath worsened before she went unresponsive, the claim says. A ‘code blue’ was called and health care workers spent about 25 minutes trying to resuscitate her.
Kemash was pronounced dead at 5:50 a.m. on April 19, 2022.
The lawsuit claims the actions of all the defendants named led to her death.
“Kemash died as a result of the negligence and misconduct of the Defendants,” the statement of claim says. “The conduct of the Defendants was the actual and legal cause of the loss suffered by the Plaintiff, the Estate, the children, the grandchildren and the husband of Kemash.”
A dollar amount for damages is not given in the statement of claim, but it says the plaintiff is now seeking “general, special, exemplary and punitive damages to be determined by the court, as well as court costs and damages under the Fatal Accidents Act.”
Phillip Cramer, the Winnipeg-based lawyer representing Medwick, said he could not comment on the statement of claim. The WRHA did not respond to a request for comment.
No allegations have been tested in court, and no defendants named have yet to file a statement of defence.
— Dave Baxter is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter who works out of the Winnipeg Sun. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.
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