Coroner’s inquest looking into 3 mental health deaths at Abbotsford Regional Hospital

Three families are searching for answers after the death of their mentally ill loved ones shortly after leaving Abbotsford Regional Hospital.

On Wednesday, the families held a vigil outside the Burnaby building where a public inquest is looking into the cases of Brian David Geisheimer, Sebastien Pavit Abdi and Sarah Louise Charles.

“I’m hoping the jury will have a strong recommendation,” said Charles’s mother, Deborah Nolet.

Geisheimer’s mother, Lorraine Johnson said there needs to be changes and that they need to be monitored and legislated. Her son was 30 years old when he took his life in Mission on Dec. 28, 2014.

Abdi, 19, died at his Abbotsford home on April 26, 2015, the same day Charles took her own life. All three had been admitted for mental health issues and their deaths happened shortly after leaving Abbotsford General Hospital.

Now the family members will again be reliving the final hours of their children’s lives at the inquest.

“I begged the doctors and nurses to keep her because she wasn’t safe to leave,” Nolet said.

“She didn’t finish her medical protocol and she was allowed to leave and in the next 18 hours, she ended her life.”

Many at the vigil have lost a loved one to mental illness and they share similar stories of a system they say is failing families.

“They just released her without any community support,” Jasmine Onland’s father, John, said.

“They just said ‘get out’ and she didn’t have any place else to go. She was the mother of two small children at the time. They lost their mother and we lost our daughter.”

Eight days have been set aside for the coroner’s inquest where a jury will return with a list of recommendations.

~ with files from Grace Ke and Amy Judd