Burnaby Hospital discharges 84-year-old man alone and in nightgown

Some serious questions around release protocols at Burnaby Hospital are coming to the foreground today after an 84-year-old patient was discharged dressed in little more than a hospital gown and slippers.

Angela Barr got more than a shock when her husband, Richard — who had been in Burnaby Hospital — turned up on their doorstep at night on Nov. 20 after being dropped off by a cab.

Barr, who has suffered from a heart condition for years and has a pacemaker, was experiencing some chest pains that afternoon, when the discomfort didn’t subside the couple called for an ambulance.

“When the ambulance drivers came they pretty much stripped him down,” Angela says.

“They took off his shirt and had him wired up to monitor his heart.”

When paramedics whisked him away to Burnaby Hospital, Angela followed her husband in a cab. After speaking to the emergency room doctor overseeing her husband, Angela eventually returned home. She believed he’d be staying overnight.

Instead, Barr was discharged in the evening.

“A nurse came by in the hospital and said you can go home now,” Barr says.

“And I thought how do I get home? So I went to the lobby in the ER, found a taxi telephone and requested a cab. A few minutes later a taxi arrived, I walked out in those little foot slippers they give you and the hospital gown and took the cab home… The first thing I did was come in and try to get warm.”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "A nurse came by in the hospital and said you can go home now," Barr says.</p><p>"And I thought how do I get home? So I went to the lobby in the ER, found a taxi telephone and requested a cab. A few minutes later a taxi arrived, I walked out in those little foot slippers they give you and the hospital gown and took the cab home… The first thing I did was come in and try to get warm."

Barr’s unexpected arrival home completely shocked his wife.

“I think the administration of Burnaby Hospital that will have someone in a hospital gown told to get home in their own steam, is absolutely appalling,” she says.

“When he had no clothes, no shoes there, if I had known when I followed the ambulance to the hospital in the afternoon, I would have taken something with me.”

While Angela admits she didn’t specifically ask the emergency room doctor if her husband would be released that day, she says she did expect someone would call her to say he could go home.

“I couldn’t believe it when he showed up at our doorstep. I was absolutely aghast that they had let him come home in a cab without even letting me know. I’m really angry with Burnaby Hospital.”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "I couldn't believe it when he showed up at our doorstep. I was absolutely aghast that they had let him come home in a cab without even letting me know. I'm really angry with Burnaby Hospital."

New Westminster MLA and opposition spokesperson on health Judy Darcy echoes Angela’s sentiments.

“I think it’s really quite shocking — an 84-year-old heart patient released from the ER in a nightgown and slippers to go home alone in a cab? If protocols were being followed then there’s something wrong with the protocols,” Darcy says.

The New Westminster MLA went on to question if protocols were just not followed or if the appropriate protocols are in place. Darcy says when it comes to elderly patients, staff need to know before anyone leaves the emergency — how they’re getting home, are they appropriately dressed and is there someone at home to meet them?

This isn’t the first time a Fraser Health hospital has come under fire. Last year, a similar incident happened to a visually impaired 90-year-old woman who said she was forced to leave the Delta Hospital emergency room and take a taxi home in the middle of the night dressed in her pajamas.

“[For the Delta Hospital incident] Fraser Health said protocols were followed but that they’d be looking at it again,” Darcy says.

“If they did look at it, then there’s something still missing. Either protocols weren’t followed or it needs changing. We can’t have elderly frail people going home in the middle of the night in nightgowns and slippers.”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "[For the Delta Hospital incident] Fraser Health said protocols were followed but that they'd be looking at it again," Darcy says.</p><p>"If they did look at it, then there's something still missing. Either protocols weren't followed or it needs changing. We can't have elderly frail people going home in the middle of the night in nightgowns and slippers."

For Barr, while he’s a little more laidback about the incident and understands that the emergency room staff is under a lot of pressure, he still believes there should be some provisions in place.

“They could say we’ll phone your wife or make arrangements to get home,” Barr says.