After Youth’s Death Following 8-Hour ER Wait, Family Calls for Inquest and Law Reform

Ambulances are parked at the entrance to the emergency department in a file photo. The Canadian Press/Darryl Dyck

An Ontario family is asking for an inquest and calling on the province to set limitations on emergency room wait times for children, after their son died following an eight-hour wait last year.

GJ and Hazel van der Werken, of Burlington, Ont., said their 16-year-old son, Finlay, was taken to Oakville Trafalgar Memorial Hospital on Feb. 7, 2024, after suffering with a mild illness that got worse.

Finlay’s mother told the media that the emergency room was “filled with a lot of people.”

She said her son was “calling out in pain.” He was quickly triaged as a “level 2 patient,” which indicated he required urgent care, but was left waiting for eight hours and 22 minutes, Hazel van der Werken said.

When the teen was assessed by a doctor, he was diagnosed with hypoxia, or low levels of oxygen in the tissue, and pneumonia caused by sepsis, which is the body’s extreme reaction to an infection.

Finlay was later transferred to SickKids Hospital in Toronto and put on machines to take over the functions of his heart, lungs, and kidneys.

His father said that there were no improvements to Finlay’s condition, saying they were told by doctors there was “no chance of Finlay coming out of this.”

The couple wrote in Finlay’s online obituary that they had to make “a decision that no parent should” and they agreed to turn off the teen’s life support.

“In a little over 24 hours we lost our 16 year old son,” they wrote.

Inquest

The family has requested an inquest into Finlay’s death, according to media reports.

A spokesperson for the family said a regional supervising coroner for Toronto will “review all aspects” of the death investigation before deciding whether to call for a discretionary inquest.

The couple said their loss was not an “isolated case.”

On the petition signature page, Hazel van der Werken wrote that “across Ontario, children and teens are waiting dangerously long for emergency care in overcrowded hospitals.”

She said staff were “overextended” and “capacity is stretched to the breaking point.”

Ontario Public Health statistics show there were a total of 355,370 emergency room visits in 2023 for those under 18. That includes 79,736 for those aged 4 years and younger, 72,254 for those 5 to 9 years of age, 100,046 for those 10 to 14 years old, and 103,334 for those aged 15 to 19 years.

In 2022, there was a total of 332,328 visits to hospital ERs, including 75,082 for those 4 years and younger, 66,073 for those aged 5 to 9 years, 91,134 for those 10 to 14 years of age, and 99,259 for those 15 to 19 years old.

Hazel van der Werken wrote that children were not small adults and “deteriorate faster” and “often cannot advocate for themselves.”

“Without enforceable standards, they remain at the greatest risk in a strained system,” she said in the petition.

The petition asks the government to require a physician assessment within two hours of a child under 18 years of age arriving to the ER, and admission within eight hours; mandate pediatric nurse-to-patient and physician-to-patient ratios in emergency settings; develop independent oversight for hospitals; mandate public, independent reviews of every pediatric death in an ER waiting room; and develop pediatric emergency readiness, including staffing, training, and infrastructure.

The petition had nearly 8,000 signatures as of Aug. 23.

Lawsuit

The couple filed a lawsuit against Halton Healthcare Services, which operates the Oakville hospital, and 13 other defendants including seven doctors.

The lawsuit alleges the health service had an “inadequate system” for patients like Finlay to be assessed by a doctor in a reasonable amount of time. It also says there was not enough staff to monitor patients in the emergency department.

The lawsuit is seeking $1.3 million in damages.

Halton Healthcare Services’ EVP of clinical operations and chief nursing executive Dr. Cheryl Williams told The Epoch Times in an email statement that they offered their “deepest condolences” to the family. Williams said Halton does not comment on individual patient cases out of respect for privacy.

She added that the health organization was “deeply committed” to “high-quality, compassionate care” for communities.

“Like many hospitals, we are seeing more patients presenting with increasingly complex health conditions and co-morbidities, often requiring longer stays and more intensive care,” she said, adding that it places “significant demand” on emergency departments.

Williams said Halton was advancing “key initiatives,” such as developing an Emergency Department Working Group to “respond quickly” to challenges, complaints, and concerns, and establishing a “length of stay committee” to improve patient flow.

Other changes included the launch of a command centre, improved physician scheduling for “consistent coverage” during busy times, standardizing on-call coverage criteria for hospitals, as well as a “refreshed strategy” for emergency care and engaging patients and families in “quality improvement efforts.”

The Canadian Press and Paul Rowan Brian contributed to this article.