A sentencing hearing began on Monday for a woman who posed as a nurse in order to work at a B.C. hospital.
Brigitte Cleroux, who does not have a nursing degree, worked at the B.C. Women’s Hospital between June 1, 2020, and June 23, 2021, when she was fired over her false credentials. According to a ruling posted in July, 2023, her work involved about 1,150 patients. Previous filings indicate she directly gave care to 899 patients in her time at the hospital.
On Monday, victims stood up in court to read their statements.
One said she now has “trouble sleeping,” she’s on “high alert” and her “life will never be the same since this criminal touched me.”
Another victim talked about her loss of trust in the medical system adding that she “had an expectation of professional care” and instead she “experienced a physical assault.”
In July, Cleroux pleaded guilty to 11 charges related to the time she faked being a nurse in B.C.
The charges include fraud and assaulting patients who didn’t give their consent while she injected them with drugs with no medical credentials.
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The Crown said she had repeatedly lied to the courts, showed a lack of remorse and did it all out of greed.
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Cleroux has a criminal record that dates back to 1988 and spans four provinces.
The Provincial Health Services Authority (PHSA) previously divulged that Cleroux, who worked under a false name, claimed to be a trained procedural sedation nurse, and worked as a general duty nurse performing patient admission, taking vital signs, observing patient symptoms and breathing, administering intravenous medication, and participating in the discharge process pre-operation section in the gynecological services program.
Filings submitted in court in July as a part of a separate civil suit against the health authority revealed more disturbing details of Cleroux’s employment with the hospital.
Those claims allege administrators at B.C. Women’s Hospital never sought government ID when they hired Cleroux. Instead, they allege the employer accepted a photocopy of a personal cheque from Cleroux, on which she had whited out her name at the top and written another name.
That name and victims’ names are protected under a publication ban.
The suit further claims the hospital did not vet Cleroux’s references, which were made up of phone numbers and Gmail addresses, but included no professional or business information.
The lawsuit claims Cleroux was hired by fraudulently using the name of a real nurse who was employed at Vancouver General Hospital, but was on maternity leave, and that PHSA did not contact VGH for information.
None of the claims have been proven in court.
Cleroux, who originally hails from Gatineau, Que., was sentenced to seven years in prison in April 2022 after pleading guilty to criminal negligence causing bodily harm, assault with a weapon, impersonation and using forged documents over a similar scheme in Ottawa.
According to the BC Prosecution Service, she is charged with 17 offences in B.C. from incidents between June 2020 and June 2021.
Charges include fraud in excess of $5,000, impersonation, uttering a forged document, assault and assault with a weapon.
Crown is asking for an eight-year sentence. With the seven-year sentence in Ontario, that would be a total of 15 years.
Cleroux will be back in court on Tuesday when the judge will hear from the defence.
–with files from Simon Little
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