Inquest starts in Brian Sinclair hospital ER death

WINNIPEG – Winnipeg’s health authority has admitted it failed a homeless man in a wheelchair who died during a 34-hour wait in a hospital emergency room.

William Olsen, lawyer for the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority, told the inquest into the death of Brian Sinclair that no single person was responsible for what happened.

But he said there is no doubt errors were made.

“A perfect storm occurred,” Olsen told Judge Tim Preston Tuesday. “The WRHA failed him … at all levels of the organization.”

Sinclair went to the emergency room of Winnipeg’s Health Sciences Centre Sept. 19, 2008, with a bladder infection and spoke with a nurse. The homeless aboriginal man stayed in the emergency room waiting room until a fellow patient notified a security guard that he was dead.

Manitoba’s medical examiner found Sinclair had a blocked catheter and that the problem could have been fixed with a simple procedure.

Sinclair, a double-amputee, was soft-spoken and hard to understand, Olsen said. He was also cognitively impaired and fiercely independent, he added.

“That cannot be an excuse for failing to ensure he was properly reviewed by the system as a person requiring care,” Olsen said.

The hospital was responsible for Sinclair the minute he walked through the door of the emergency room, he said.

“We failed in that respect,” Olsen said.

While some argue Sinclair’s race and disability led to his lack of treatment, Olsen said that isn’t the case.

“These events could have happened to anyone,” he said.

But Murray Trachtenberg, lawyer for the Sinclair family, said there is little doubt Sinclair’s identity and marginalization led to stereotyping and false assumptions about his need for care.

Instead of receiving care, Trachtenberg said he sat there “helpless, vomiting, his life slowly fading away.”

Sinclair was told to wait to see a triage nurse and that’s exactly what he did, he said.

“He waited and waited, growing sicker and weaker by the minute,” Trachtenberg said. “There were numerous opportunities for medical staff to ensure he received the help he needed.”

Sinclair was a frequent visitor to the emergency room and did struggle with substance abuse, Trachtenberg said.

“It was not his demons that killed him,” he said. “It was the angels — the professionals we all turn to in times of urgent medical need — that egregiously and fatally let him down.”

Sinclair’s sister and two brothers were present as the inquest started with a ceremony conducted by an aboriginal elder, whose prayer included asking for blessings on the courtroom.

The inquest is scheduled to run through August and then resume again in October.

— with files from Global News reporters