The father of Lexi Daken says he believes she would still be alive if she had received a mental health intervention during a visit to the Fredericton, N.B., emergency room less than a week before her death.
Daken, 16, died by suicide on Feb. 24, 2021, just six days after that visit to the Dr. Edward Chalmers Hospital emergency room. The second day of a coroner’s inquest into the circumstances of her death heard testimony on Tuesday about the days leading up to her suicide, including her trip to the ER on Feb. 18.
Shelley Hanson, a guidance counsellor at Leo Hayes High School in Fredericton, began seeing Daken after her first suicide attempt in November 2020. Hanson was helping Daken come up with plans to catch up on the school work she had missed while recovering, which was a major source of stress for the high academic achiever.
On Feb. 18 Daken came to Hanson’s office and said she was having suicidal thoughts. In the previous four days, Daken had only slept about three hours and had a plan to kill herself.
Hanson told the jury that she felt that Daken required medical attention that was outside of her scope as a counsellor and likely needed to see a psychiatrist. The pair left for the hospital around 12:30 p.m. that day and would sit in the waiting room until after 7 p.m.
Daken was seen by emergency room doctor Rebecca McGinn, who said Daken spoke to her about her worsening mood and told her she was experiencing hallucinations of severed hands of spiders on the walls several times a week. McGinn added that Daken would not contract to safety, a term used in the medical field that means a person agrees not to kill themselves while under their care.
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After McGinn spoke to Daken for a few minutes, blood and urine samples were ordered. She told the jury that was in part to buy time to continue her assessment and to see if she had any underlying issues.
After an hour, McGinn said she spoke to Daken again and told her she could either wait to see a psychiatrist that evening or, if she felt safe enough to go home, she could receive a referral for a consult over the next week or two. Daken opted for the second option and McGinn said she felt there were enough protective measures in place, like her strong support system in the form of her father and her friends, and felt no reason to question her judgement.
But according to Hanson’s testimony, she felt that McGinn’s language may have pushed the people-pleasing Daken into making a decision she wasn’t fully comfortable with. Hanson said if she wasn’t safe to leave, she would be “forced” to call in a psychiatrist. She told the jury she was “very shocked” at her use of the word forced.
“The look on (Lexi’s) face really worried me,” she said.
“I said again, I think she really needs to see a psychiatrist.”
Daken ultimately agreed to be discharged with an outpatient consult with a psychiatrist that would likely happen in the next one to two weeks. But both Hanson and Lexi’s father Chris Daken expressed concern to the jury that she may have felt that she was being a burden on the doctor and her guidance counsellor.
“I think that’s part of the reason, when Lexi just kind of agreed that night to go home, at that point she had just, you know, probably kind of given up on getting the help that she wanted to have,” Chris Daken told reporters after his testimony.
The inquest will continue on Wednesday morning, but presiding coroner Emily Cassy warned jurors to be ready to begin their work to determine the cause and manner of death as well as recommendations on how to prevent similar deaths in the future.
If you or someone you know is in crisis and needs help, resources are available. In case of an emergency, please call 911.
The Canadian Association for Suicide Prevention, Depression Hurts and Kids Help Phone 1-800-668-6868 — all offer ways for getting help if you, or someone you know, is suffering from mental health issues.
For a directory of support services in your area, visit the Canadian Association for Suicide Prevention.
Learn more about how to help someone in crisis on the Government of Canada website.
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