‘I don’t want other people to die’: Inquiry begins into Alberta Hospital drug death

WATCH ABOVE: A fatality inquiry is underway into the death of a 31-year-old patient at Alberta Hospital. As Fletcher Kent reports, her family is searching for answers.

EDMONTON — On Wednesday, a fatality inquiry began into the death of Shaunnie Rebecca Payne, who passed away in September 2012 while in care at Alberta Hospital.

Payne, 31, died after years of going in and out of different facilities as she dealt with Schizoaffective disorder, according to her family.

“Rebecca was a vibrant, creative, artistic individual who had a lot of difficulties in her life,” said her sister Amelia Birch. “A lot of times we forget that people who are struggling and living with mental illness and addiction issues are people’s sisters and daughters and wives and mothers and we look at them as just their conditions. It’s emotional for me and my family because we love her, we thought that her life was cut short.”

Payne was taken off her mediations and started on Clozapine shortly before her death while being cared for at Alberta Hospital’s intensive care unit, Payne’s family added.

“They are meant to be there to be kept safe from anything that could come along – whether that’s safety from themselves, whether that’s general population safety – they are there to heal and they are there to be in an environment that’s going to eventually get them to stabilize, particularly in a psychiatric ICU,” said Birch.

“In an ICU it should not happen that somebody is spontaneously found deceased when they’re supposed to be waking up in the morning.”

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Clozapine is an anti-psychotic medication most commonly used in the treatment of schizophrenia, and is also sometimes prescribed for bipolar and borderline personality disorders.

Payne’s autopsy indicated she had a toxic amount of Clozapine in her blood, which is why her family wanted an inquiry.

“The report into her death was unable to say exactly what happened but the most significant finding was that there was a toxic level of Clozapine in her blood serum, post mortem,” said Birch. “So, somehow the Clozapine increased and we don’t know how that happened.”

Other experts who testified at the inquiry Wednesday said Payne did not die from a toxic level of Clozapine. They explained that the fat-soluble drug drains from the person’s fat to the blood after death, which can cause a higher concentration or reading when tested post-mortem.

Birch said her hope is the inquiry will result in recommendations to help others in a similar circumstance.

“People should not die while they are in psychiatric intensive care. I want the public to be made aware, and I don’t want other people to die from the same possible mistakes that were made.”

Birch believes more steps should be taken to ensure medications are provided to patients under greater knowledge, and thinks policies surrounding procedures and staffing should be “rigorous and promote safety for clients.”

“My sister’s death will hopefully open a door to preventing accidental deaths in controlled psychiatric environments. No one going forward should die from a toxic level of their anti-psychotic medication in their blood serum,” said Birch.

The family says this inquiry is not about pointing fingers. They just want it to uncover the information about what happened.

“This was a systems failure that led up to the eventuality of her death,” said Payne’s father Thomas.

“Something went wrong, grievously, in that hospital, and we don’t know what it is.”

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“Accidents I think occur because of one of three reasons: there’s a rule and the rule is being violated, two: there’s the application of the rule, and the third is the interpretation of the rule. Something went wrong in this hospital that crossed those boundaries and led to my daughter’s death.”

The inquiry is scheduled to continue until Thursday.