Alberta Health Services (AHS) did not directly confirm a death occurred at the time. But the provincial agency told CBC News it started an initial investigation, that a quality assurance review \u2014 done when system problems may have factored in an incident, or when there\u2019s opacity around a situation \u2014 would be conducted, and that the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner had reviewed the case.<\/p>\n
Penny said her family believes that patient was Travis, her husband Allan\u2019s son.<\/p>\n
She said Allan received a call on May 9 saying Travis had died.<\/p>\n
Penny said police later told her and her husband that paramedics had picked up Travis and administered naloxone. He was reportedly responsive, she recalled an officer saying. At the hospital, Travis was given medication before being left in the waiting room, according to Penny.<\/p>\n
The Edmonton Police Service can\u2019t disclose personal health information to journalists, a spokesperson told CBC News on Friday. But they confirmed officers were called to the hospital at 3:30 a.m. on May 9 because a man died suddenly.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s standard practice for police to respond to any sudden death that happens outside of a health-care setting, the spokesperson said. The man hadn\u2019t been admitted when he died, so officers were dispatched and they\u2019re now investigating.<\/p>\n
Investigators currently believe his death was non-criminal, the spokesperson added.<\/p>\n
Searching for answers<\/p>\n
Penny said Travis experienced homelessness for the last few years of his life, after losing access to Assured Income for the Severely Handicapped (AISH). She said the family tried finding him on the streets but couldn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf it wasn\u2019t for [the police], we would not know that Travis was the boy in the waiting room who died,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Penny and her husband, accompanied by a social worker, later went to the Royal Alex to try to see Travis\u2019 body, she said. But they were informed he was moved to the medical examiner\u2019s office for an autopsy.<\/p>\n
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Doctors previously told CBC News that a death occurred at the Royal Alex’s emergency department waiting room on May 8. Alberta Health Services didn’t directly confirm the death at the time, but said an investigation and quality assurance review were underway. (Kevin Sabiston\/CBC)<\/p>\n
The social worker couldn\u2019t provide more information about Travis\u2019 case, but directed further questions to a patient relations department, Penny said.<\/p>\n
When she called AHS\u2019 patient relations department, she was told the family had to file an application through the Court of King\u2019s Bench before the hospital could release Travis\u2019 information, Penny said.<\/p>\n
An AHS spokesperson told CBC News via email that privacy laws prohibit the agency from providing specifics about a patient\u2019s case, although it acknowledges a parent\u2019s desire for information.<\/p>\n
The spokesperson confirmed AHS has connected with Travis\u2019 family and said the health authority encourages them to keep working with patient relations.<\/p>\n
Alberta\u2019s Health Information Act details when and to whom hospitals, for one, can disclose someone\u2019s personal health information. When someone has died, diagnostic, treatment and care information can be shared with family members or loved ones, if it relates to circumstances around the person\u2019s death and the deceased didn\u2019t express a desire to keep the information secret.<\/p>\n
Certain people can also exercise rights, granted in the legislation, on behalf of someone who has died: personal representatives \u2014 if it relates to administering the deceased\u2019s estate \u2014 or the deceased\u2019s \u201cnearest relative,\u201d to process an insurance claim.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt says a custodian may disclose; doesn’t say they have to and it doesn’t say they can’t,\u201d said Erin Nelson, a health law professor at the University of Alberta.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt allows them to decide whether it would be appropriate, in their opinion [and] based on who knows what information, to disclose that information,\u201d she said, adding that there could be numerous reasons to withhold information.<\/p>\n
In this case, Nelson said it sounds like the hospital intends not to release the information unless directed to by the court. But she said it could also be possible that hospital staff misunderstood what they can share under the law.<\/p>\n
Ultimately, without knowing more about the circumstances, it\u2019s hard to know why the hospital is choosing to limit the information it shares, Nelson said.<\/p>\n
Part of the problem could also be that the man wasn\u2019t admitted to the hospital, according to Dr. Warren Thirsk, an emergency physician at the Royal Alex who also serves as the Alberta Medical Association\u2019s (AMA) section head of emergency medicine.<\/p>\n
Once an ER patient is diagnosed by a doctor and \u2014 if needed \u2014 is referred to another unit or specialist, they become someone\u2019s responsibility, Thirsk said. The doctor who assumes responsibility then has the power to talk to the patient\u2019s family.<\/p>\n
But people in the waiting room are considered to belong to no one, he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a lack of system-wide accountability that refuses to acknowledge or own those patients,\u201d Thirsk said.<\/p>\n
In the Smith family\u2019s case, however, Thirsk said he is worried the hospital may be putting administrative process ahead of giving a grieving family closure.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou need to approach families with the compassion they deserve,\u201d Thirsk said. \u201cThey’ve lost a loved one \u2014 regardless of how it happened.\u201d<\/p>\n
AHS is calling for patience from the public as it completes its examinations of the incident, the spokesperson said. If the agency finds the patient should have been cared for differently somehow, or ways to better serve patients in the future, AHS said it will \u201ctake meaningful action.\u201d<\/p>\n
The agency added that it is committed to sharing findings from the quality assurance review with the family, within the confines of the law.<\/p>\n
Playing politics<\/p>\n
Medical professionals have been raising concerns about the province\u2019s emergency departments for months, ever since Prashant Sreekumar, 44, died in the Grey Nuns Community Hospital\u2019s ER in December. His family said he waited hours for care.<\/p>\n
Acute Care Alberta, the provincial agency responsible for delivering emergency health care, investigated the circumstances around his death and made 16 recommendations to improve the system.<\/p>\n