The family of a Nova Scotia woman who died after a seven-hour wait at a Nova Scotia emergency room has launched a civil lawsuit against the province’s health authority.
Allison Holthoff, a 37-year-old mother of three, died at the Cumberland Regional Health Care Centre emergency room on New Year’s Eve. Her husband, Gunter, told reporters in January his wife had been waiting in excruciating pain at the Amherst hospital.
“She said, ‘I think I’m dying. Don’t let me die here,’” he said.
Holthoff’s cause of her death has not been released, and the health authority is conducting a quality review investigation at the hospital’s emergency department.
Valent Legal filed the lawsuit Wednesday against the Nova Scotia Health Authority with the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia on behalf of Holthoff’s family.
The lawsuit alleges the Nova Scotia Health Authority “was negligent in failing to meet the standard of care in operating the emergency room, monitoring the waiting patients, triaging the patients properly, and conducting appropriate testing in a timely manner.”
The lawsuit also names the attending emergency room physician as a defendant.
‘She deserved better’
Lawyer Mike Dull said Holthoff received “substandard” care when she presented to the emergency room on Dec. 31.
“In this case, she couldn’t walk. She couldn’t even support her own weight sitting up in a wheelchair. She had to lay down on the ground, and she laid on that ground for hours and hours without being checked on, and then died shortly after,” he said.
“She deserved better. Nova Scotians deserve better.”
Dull said the lawsuit was filed with two goals: to ensure Holthoff’s loss was acknowledged, and that “decision-makers do better in the future, that changes are made to ensure that no family has to go through what they are currently going through, and what they will be going through for years to come.”
He said the “only avenue for relief” for Holthoff’s family is through the civil justice system. The lawsuit doesn’t specify a dollar amount.
“It’s not about dollars and cents to the family, it’s about ensuring that what happened doesn’t happen again for another family,” he said.
None of the allegations have been proven in court. The Nova Scotia Health Authority declined to comment on the legal action.
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