WINNIPEG — Health officials are investigating a death at a Winnipeg hospital.
Officials at the Health Sciences Centre say a middle-aged man arrived shortly after midnight Tuesday morning at the hospital's emergency department, was triaged as a lower-acuity case and directed to the waiting room.
The hospital's chief operating officer, Dr. Shawn Young, said the man was reassessed while waiting and he soon took a turn for the worse.
"Just before 8 a.m., staff noted the patient's condition had significantly worsened," Young said.
"Medical interventions subsequently occurred and the patient was transported to a resuscitation room. He was unfortunately declared deceased a short time later."
The emergency room was busy at the time, but not at an abnormal level, Young said. There were around 100 patients and about 50 of those were in the waiting room. There were a number of high-acuity patients and the resuscitation bends were full at times, he added.
Officials have launched a review that will include medical charts and security video of the area.
Lower-acuity patients can wait 10 hours or more, Young said. As of Tuesday afternoon, online data from the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority showed wait times between eight and 11 hours at emergency departments in the city.
Young said deaths in waiting rooms don't happen often, but there are some cases from time to time.
"We don't want to see any," he said. "But this is something that we do face."
The Health Sciences Centre emergency department came under scrutiny after the 2008 death of Brian Sinclair, a double amputee who died of a treatable bladder infection caused by a blocked catheter while waiting 34 hours in the ER.
Although Sinclair spoke to a triage aide when he arrived there, he was never formally entered into the hospital’s system.
The death led to an inquest, changes in procedures and the overhaul of 10 ERs across the province.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 7, 2025.
The Canadian Press
