Family of man who died waiting for ER care suing Horizon, nurses
Health authority caused or contributed to Donald Darrell Mesheau’s death by negligence, lawsuit argues
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The family of a man who died awaiting care in a Fredericton ER waiting room is now suing the Horizon Health Network.
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Donald Darrell Mesheau, 78, died of heart failure at the Dr. Everett Chalmers Regional Hospital on July 12, 2022. At a coroner’s inquest in April, a jury heard Mesheau had arrived at hospital at 9:33 p.m. the previous evening after calling 911 with concerns over “weakness” and a week-long cold. He was still waiting to see a doctor seven hours later when he was found unresponsive at 4:33 a.m, and was later pronounced dead.
When he arrived at hospital, he was assessed at level 3 under the Canadian Triage and Acuity System, the inquest heard, which suggests that a patient needs to be seen by a doctor within 30 minutes, 90 per cent of the time.
The lawsuit was filed in July in Fredericton Court of Kings Bench by his sister and executor Susan Mesheau on behalf of his estate and family members – including three other siblings, two children and his granddaughter. It names Horizon and two nurses on shift that night, April Knowles and Danielle Othen, as defendants in a claim under the Fatal Accidents Act, alleging that the co-defendants caused or contributed to Mesheau’s death through negligence.
“The actions of the defendants responsible for Darrell Mesheau’s care fell well below the standard of care,” the lawsuit reads.
None of the lawsuit’s claims have been proven in court.
Mesheau’s death was followed by a public outcry and the firing of Horizon CEO Dr. John Dornan, plus the dismissal of then-health minister Dorothy Shephard from her cabinet post, and the dissolving of the boards of both the Horizon and Vitalite health networks.
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Fredericton police determined there was “no criminality” in January.
At the inquest, court heard that a night shift in the emergency department’s triage room would have usually had two people, and was down to one that evening, who was tasked with triaging patients to determine the severity of their case, communicating with ambulances, and checking patients in the waiting room. Othen, a registered nurse, triaged Mesheau at 10:44 p.m. and assessed him at level 3, which calls for a person to have their vital signs checked immediately and then again every “couple of hours,” with visual checks each hour, the inquest heard.
Othen testified she had been working for 12 hours with no breaks, and that she had no time or opportunity to check the waiting room. Knowles, a licensed practical nurse, said she was assigned to the psych unit but was assisting in the ER that night.
She testified that Mesheau’s vitals were “normal” for a man his age, and that she checked again at 2:03 a.m., with a visual check at 3:30 and 3:45. Security footage shows that after 2:03 a.m., nobody physically interacted with Mesheau from 2:03 a.m. until 4:28 p.m.
At that point, a nurse sent by Knowles looked in on him and told her to check his vitals, when she found him unresponsive, called a “code blue” and rushed him into the ER.
The jury at an inquest is not permitted to assign blame for a person’s death. The jury in April found that Mesheau died of natural causes, and recommended that “all stakeholders” should “collaborate and take ownership” of hospital capacity issues, with a witness telling the jury that “bed blocking,” where patients wait in acute care beds because there is no room in the hospital, was at issue the night of Mesheau’s death.
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Horizon’s own after-incident review included eight recommendations involving making sure the CTAS guidelines are followed, standardizing patient transfer from ambulances and facilitating transfer of non-urgent admissions, which the jury recommended be fully implemented and funded.
At the time, Horizon’s interim president Margaret Melanson said Horizon has implemented measures for “enhancing access and the delivery of patient care” in its emergency departments including increased staffing levels to monitor patients in waiting rooms.
“The bottom line is that Horizon Health made mistakes,” Mesheau’s son Ryan Mesheau told reporters following the inquest. “Every medical professional seemed to fail my father the night of his death by not following their own standards and protocols.”
The lawsuit claims Horizon and the nurses “failed to provide proper medical care and attention,” including reassessment every 30 minutes, as required by triage standards, and that their actions “caused or contributed to Darrell Mesheau’s death.” That includes failing to meet established standards, failure to make “competent personnel (and) adequate facilities and equipment available” and failure “to properly monitor and care for Darrell Mesheau prior to his death.”
Othen and Knowles are alleged to have failed to investigate Mesheau’s symptoms and take steps to have him examined by a doctor, among other things, with the lawsuit alleging that Othen failed to document or inquire about his medical history while taking his chart information.
The lawsuit alleges that the estate and Mesheau’s siblings and children have suffered “pecuniary loss,” or financial damages, and that his granddaughter suffered a loss of “companionship, guidance and support” as defined in the Fatal Accidents Act, plus punitive or exemplary damages.
Horizon declined comment on the lawsuit on Friday, with Susan Mesheau saying the family has nothing to add beyond the lawsuit itself. Brunswick News reached out to Othen and Knowles by email and did not hear back by press time.
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