Saskatchewan’s chief coroner has decided not to call an inquest into the death of Shayne Turner, who died of an overdose in White City in 2021 shortly after being discharged from Regina General Hospital.
Last November at the Saskatchewan legislature, Turner’s family told reporters he was being treated for a prior overdose at the hospital the night before his death.
They said they learned from a patient advocate’s report that Turner had requested to be sent to a detox facility seven times while in care there, and that there were allegedly no detox beds available in Regina.
The family said Turner was eventually discharged with just a pair of addictions services brochures and a cab voucher.
He was found dead of an overdose the following day.
The family called for an inquest in November, arguing a detailed timeline of Turner’s hospital experience could identify opportunities to save lives, and said Saskatchewan’s chief coroner agreed to reopen the death investigation and consider an inquest.
He released his decision on the matter Thursday.
Turner’s sister Ashley said it leaves the family feeling “defeated”, arguing it would also have created an opportunity to destigmatize drug use.
“A mandatory inquest is held when an overdose occurs in custody, which portrays to the community that people with substance use disorder are only criminals and deviants,” Ashley Turner told Global News Thursday morning.
“This is stigmatizing to people with substance use disorder. My family and I know that on Nov. 8, 2021 my brother’s death was preventable had his multiple requests for continued health care been taken seriously.”
Ashley Turner added her brother wasn’t given naloxone when he left either, something she believes could also have saved his life.
Instead of calling an inquest, chief coroner Clive Weighill has made two recommendations to the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA):
- “The SHA shall consider a formal protocol between Regina hospital emergency departments and the Regina Brief and Social Detox Services, as a way to provide an immediate avenue for admittance if a person is requesting entry to the detox center when being released from care.”
- “The SHA review their protocol, as it pertains to providing naloxone kits to persons treated for drug toxicity or drug addiction, upon their release from care.”
“I believe that it was more timely for us to give the recommendations. It would be quicker to get to the SHA rather than waiting for an inquest,” Chief Coroner Clive Weighill said Thursday, adding he believes sufficient information to make those recommendations was collected in his initial investigation.
“The crux of the matter is that there wasn’t a bed available for Shayne that day, so that’s why the recommendation was made that there should be immediate access to social detox or an addiction bed.”
Ashley said she and her family are thankful for the coroner’s recommendations and commended him for being communicative and transparent as he reopened Turner’s death investigation.
She said, though, that the decision “feels like another person of power and authority dismissing the addictions crisis in our province.”
She added that a promise from Mental Health and Addictions Minister Everett Hindley to meet with the family after the investigation has not yet been fulfilled.
She said that in addition to fulfilling those recommendations, she’d like to see the SHA invest in medically-supervised withdrawal services at its hospitals.
“If my brother would have had the option to medically withdraw and be admitted into Regina General Hospital I do believe that he would be alive today.”
A Saskatchewan Health Authority spokesperson, meanwhile, provided the following response Thursday afternoon:
“The Saskatchewan Health Authority is reviewing the official Coroner’s report and the final recommendations directed to it within current/future operations. We expect it will take some weeks to review and the SHA will draft a final response back to the Chief Coroner when that review is complete.
“Currently, there is a work standard in place to connect individuals from the emergency departments in Regina to Regina Brief and Social Detox Services, and the SHA is already reviewing Take Home Naloxone (THN) Kit distribution and tracking, in particular to ensure that those at risk or their family members are offered a THN Kit on discharge.
“Saskatchewan residents who are at risk of an opioid overdose and/or might witness an opioid overdose, such as friends and family of people who use opioids, are eligible for free training and a free THN kit. Over the last two years the SHA THN Program has expanded access through Primary Health Care, EMS, Pharmacies, and corrections to ensure easy accessibility to THN kits.”