WATCH ABOVE: Police allege a Georgian Bay General worker took a Midland woman off life support without authorization. Mark Carcasole reports.
The living room of the Leblanc household in Midland, Ont., is filled with individual pictures and collages featuring 39-year-old Deanna, the mother of the house. In some, she hugs her husband Mike. In another, her sons plant kisses on her cheeks as she smiles.
The photos, some of the frames they’re housed in, and the hand-knitted blankets that lie on the family’s couch are remaining reminders of Deanna, whom her widower calls his best friend.
“It’s not the same,” says her husband Mike, sitting in the kitchen.”We were together all the time.”
Deanna Leblanc died on March 2, 2014. A couple days before that she had had a knee scope procedure at Southlake Regional Health Centre in Newmarket and was sent home to recover. Mike remembers the recovery being normal.
“We went to bed and she was laughing and joking around,” he describes.”At three o’clock in the morning, she was asking me to help her, she was dying, and to call 911.”
Before they knew it, she was on life support at Georgian Bay General Hospital in Midland and died soon after.
READ MORE: Ontario nurse charged in death of woman allegedly taken off life support
Under his lawyer’s advice Mike won’t say what caused the rapid deterioration of her health or whether it was him who made the call to remove Deanna from life support. Whatever happened, the Leblancs didn’t suspect anything out of the ordinary until they were contacted by Midland Police shortly after Deanna’s funeral.
“An officer came up and talked to me and asked me if I’d come down [to the police station] and do an interview, they’d explain everything. So I went down,” says Mike.
As he speaks, sitting to his right on the kitchen table is a newspaper with his late wife’s face on the cover. She’s front page news Friday morning because police have made an arrest in connection to her death.
After a year-long investigation, police have announced the arrest of a former nurse at Georgian Bay General.
A statement posted on the Midland Police Service website Thursday afternoon accuses the woman of terminating a patient’s life support “without authorization.”
“A 50-year-old woman from Wyevale, Ontario, Joanna Flynn, has been charged with manslaughter and criminal negligence causing death,” Inspector Ron Wheeldon told Global News.
Police would make no further comment with the case before the courts.
Global News was unable to reach Flynn for an interview. She was in court Thursday after her arrest and was freed on $50,000 bail with strict conditions.
Georgian Bay General Hospital’s President and CEO Karen McGrath released a statement regarding the case.
“We have been advised that the Midland Police Services have laid charges against a former employee of Georgian Bay General Hospital,” said McGrath. “While we understand that a criminal charge involving someone at our hospital is a highly distressing occurrence and will create a good deal of anxiety for our community, the charges result from a police investigation to which the hospital is not a party.
“This matter is in the hands of the justice system and as advised by our legal counsel the hospital will not be making any further statements about this matter.”
Southlake Hospital also issued a statement to Global News, claiming they only found out about the incident recently.
“We have just become aware of the events related to this case as reported in the media. We recognize that this is a tragic and difficult situation for all involved. It is not appropriate for Southlake to comment at this time.”
Flynn will be back in court in May.
Facing many trial dates ahead, Mike Leblanc says he just wants the whole ordeal to be over.
“Nothing’s going to bring her back.”
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