The family of Stacey Ross, the Winnipegger who died at St. Boniface Hospital after they say she waited more than 11 hours for care, is speaking publicly about what they’ve learned.
Relatives say they recently met with the hospital’s critical incident review team and were told her heart attack was missed.
“We were told plainly, it was missed. Her heart attack was missed. She waited too long and the system failed her. When asked whether this outcome could’ve been prevented Dr. Pickett responded. Yes, the wait killed her,” said Sheri Ross, sister of Stacey Ross.
The family says they were told that at 4:22 p.m., Stacey’s troponin levels were elevated and claim they were informed that if she had been given a bed at that time, she likely would have survived.
“Stacy was not assessed by a physician until 10:46 p.m. at which point it was clear she was not ok. She was so unstable that she needed to be moved from retrieving space into your resuscitation room immediately she died several hours later,” said Ross.
Stacey’s brother is now calling on political leaders to work together to address emergency room wait times.
“Minister Asagwara, Premier Kinew, Prime Minister Carney, leaders of the opposition, you need to work together on this. Manitobans, Canadians, my sister, deserves better. Finger pointing, consistently blaming the past and present leaders is not serving any purpose now. This is nobody’s fault and it is not up to one individual to repair, you guys need to focus your energy on the task at hand because the bottom line is 12 hour wait times in the ER are a death sentence,” said Benji Ross, brother of Stacey Ross.
In response, Manitoba Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara said Tuesday that an external, out-of-province expert will be brought in to ensure the family’s concerns are addressed appropriately.
“I understand why any family would- in the midst of their grief have a ton of unanswered questions and our top priority is to make sure that every question that the family has is answered in full,” said Uzoma Asagwara, minister of health, seniors and long-term care.
“As a government, we’ve been very clear, we will listen to families, we listen to those on the front lines and so there’s an opportunity here for us to make sure that we have an external expert who can be a part of the CI and provide that reassurance to the family,” said Asagwara.