A Haisla woman who bore a stillborn baby after she claims she was denied service at Kitimat General Hospital is suing the Northern Health Authority and several health-care workers.
The suit, filed by Sarah Morrison and her partner Ronald Luft in B.C. Supreme Court Wednesday, alleges negligence and “deliberate racial indifference.”
None of the claims have been proven in court, and Northern Health has yet to file a response to the suit.
The suit claims the couple had phoned KGH prior to arrival on Jan. 27 as Morrison was experiencing contractions.
Despite limited prenatal care, all previous signs pointed to a healthy fetus, it claims.
The suit alleges that when the pair arrived at the hospital, a fetal heart exam found the baby to have a heart rate of 140 beats per minute, but that no further examination was done despite Morrison reporting she was leaking amniotic fluid.
When a doctor arrived he performed no examination, it claims.
“Upon seeing the plaintiffs (the doctor) advised (them) there was nothing he could do for them and that he did not understand why they came to KGH, stating they should have gone to the hospital in Terrace,” the suit alleges.
The suit claims the pair then called an ambulance to take them to Mills Memorial Hospital in Terrace, but were again denied service, despite offering to pay any cost.
“The ambulance arrived and took the plaintiffs from one end of KGH to the other end of KGH. The ambulance attendant … refused to take the plaintiffs to MMH. The attendant said the plaintiffs would have to pay for the ambulance and inquired whether the plaintiffs were even able to do that,” the suit alleges.
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BC Emergency Health Services has previously confirmed that an ambulance was called to the hospital for a maternity patient, but said it did not transport anyone.
According to the statement of claim, the couple then had Morrison’s father drive them 45 minutes to Terrace shortly after 7 p.m.
At Mills Memorial Hospital, the suit alleges that Morrison waited 15 minutes for treatment and was not given an internal exam or hooked up to any monitoring equipment.
When a doctor arrived with nurses, they were unable to find a fetal heartbeat, it claims.
“No questions were asked of Sarah to determine her medical history, as well as the fetus’, despite MMH being aware that Sarah had a limited prenatal health history,” it alleges.
“Apart from the electronic fetal heart rate examination and an ultrasound, no other efforts were made to identify the reasons for why there was no heartbeat, despite the fact that there was a reported fetal heartrate of 140 and a normal fetal movement at KGH.”
The suit claims Morrison “begged” for a caesarian section, but the doctor said there was no point, and that it could potentially affect future pregnancies.
Morrison gave birth to a stillborn female child at 1:55 a.m., according to the suit, alleging no attempts were made to resuscitate the baby.
It further claims that the defendants included “erroneous and racial stereotyping” in Morrison’s medical record that “informed or influenced the way the plaintiffs were treated.”
The suit alleges those stereotypes included that Morrison was in an abusive relationship, that her parents and grandparents had diabetes, that she had urinary tract infections, that she was depressed, and that her parents were alcoholics and recovering from drugs.
The tragedy left Morrison and Luft suffering from emotional and psychological trauma, anxiety, shame and grief, the suit claims.
In a statement Friday the Northern Health Authority said it could not speak to the case in question, citing privacy.
However, it said its board had endorsed a review of the allegations of racism in hospitals.
“These allegations are taken extremely seriously and we believe that the review underway will allow us to understand what occurred from the experience of this family, the staff and physicians,” the statement reads.
The review will be led by Northern Health’s chief operating officer and the northwest medical director, with expert guidance from Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond, who authored a pair of recent independent reports into anti-Indigenous racism in B.C.’s health-care system.
“The purpose of the review is to look at hospital-wide practice and care to identify opportunities to improve the quality of care and services provided.”
The authority has previously said confirmed the maternity ward at Kitimat General Hospital was operating as normal on Jan. 27, but that patients are sometimes referred to Mills Memorial Hospital, which has neonatal and obstetric specialties, if they have high care needs or require specialist support.
In January, Health Minister Adrian Dix said that Northern Health had launched a review into the incident, that would include the family and the health-care facilities involved.
The suit comes in the wake Turpel-Lafond’s reports, which found Indigenous people face widespread and systemic racism in the healthcare system.
Among the findings were that Indigenous women have poor access to prenatal health services despite higher rates of pre-term and very pre-term birth.
In November, the province apologized to Indigenous people for racism in the health-care system and committed to 24 recommendations to address the issue.
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