'Killed by the system'
Man calls for inquiry into partner's death
Paul Bickford
Northern News Services
Monday, November 14, 2016
HAY RIVER
Harvey Werner is not mincing words about what he thinks caused the death of his long-time partner.
"She was killed by the system," said Werner of the Sept. 19 passing of Sylvia Arnold, his common-law wife of 22 years.
As a result, he is calling for a public inquiry into the whole health-care system in the NWT.
Werner tells a disturbing story - the "horror," as he describes it - that began Feb. 5 when Arnold suffered an acute pancreatitis.
What followed was seven months in and out of hospital in Hay River, Yellowknife and Edmonton - and five flights by medevac or commercial airline - leading up to Arnold's death in Edmonton at the age of 69.
Werner said the problems with the system began with a decision to send Arnold to Yellowknife after an ultrasound in Hay River discovered a cyst behind her pancreas.
"I asked them to send her to Edmonton," he said, adding protocol prevailed, despite his arguments.
Werner said, once at Yellowknife's Stanton Territorial Hospital, Arnold was put in the intensive care unit.
However, he said she was soon moved to a regular room, where she took a turn for the worse and he had to call for help in the middle of the night.
"If I wasn't there she would have died probably that night when she had that attack," he said.
Werner was also dismayed to discover that, after Arnold had a CT scan on the night she arrived at Stanton, that a critical piece of diagnostic equipment had to be replaced but would not be available for a month.
She did not receive any more CT scans during her stay at Stanton, he said.
After almost a month at Stanton, Arnold was sent home to Hay River by regular plane even though she had lost about 30 pounds, said Werner.
Her skin and eyes were yellow, and she could not keep down food and had to use a walker.
"They didn't do anything for her up there," he said, claiming the system was just waiting for her to die.
Werner said, after a few days in Hay River, Arnold was back in hospital and it was decided to send her back to Yellowknife.
"Finally, I convinced them to send her south where she can get help," he said.
Arnold ended up in Edmonton's Royal Alexandra Hospital, where Werner said it was discovered Arnold had infections in her stomach.
She was then sent to University Hospital for surgery, where Werner was told she had about a five-per-cent chance of survival.
After she was "normalized," protocol required she be sent back to hospital in Hay River, said Werner, despite his insistence that she could not be helped in the NWT and was not ready to leave hospital in Edmonton.
The couple flew from Edmonton on April 1 and not long afterwards Arnold suffered internal bleeding. Arrangements were made to send her to the hospital in Yellowknife on April 7.
"I said, 'Over my dead body you're sending her back to Yellowknife,'" recalled Werner, adding Arnold was then sent back to Edmonton, where he said she underwent emergency surgery to stop the internal bleeding.
Arnold remained in hospital and, for a time, was sent to an accommodations facility where people from the NWT stay while awaiting treatment in Edmonton.
During this time, Werner was in contact with Hay River North MLA Rocky (R.J.) Simpson, who e-mailed Health and Social Services Minister Glen Abernethy on April 7.
"The most urgent point of this e-mail is to implore the Department of Health and Social Services to keep Ms. Arnold in Edmonton until she is fully recovered," stated Simpson's e-mail, which Werner provided to News/North.
"Half-measures have nearly led to Ms. Arnold's demise, and caused the financial costs to the GNWT to pile up. The prudent thing to do is allow her to remain in Edmonton until she is fully recovered."
In an April 15 e-mail in reply, Abernethy wrote Arnold's care at Stanton was reviewed and he was advised that it was "appropriate for the symptoms as they presented and there were no half-measures taken in her care."
Abernethy assured Simpson that decisions to return patients to health-care facilities in the NWT or to their homes are made in consultation with the patient's health-care teams in both Edmonton and the NWT.
The Department of Health and Social Services was contacted last week about Werner's complaints but had not replied by press time.
When contacted by News/North, Simpson said he could not comment specifically on the case.
However, Simpson did provide some confirmation of one of Werner's complaints - that CT scans were not available for a time at Stanton.
"There was a time in February when I believe the CT scan was out of commission for a month," he said.
Simpson said, in general, there is a need to ensure people have access to the proper diagnostic tools.
Unlike Werner, Simpson is not calling for a full-scale public inquiry into the health-care system.
However, the MLA did say, "Everyone has heard of somebody being misdiagnosed perhaps or not receiving the proper treatment, and so I think especially with the amalgamation of the health authorities it's a good time to look at the procedures, how the procedures are followed, if the procedures are followed, and to see what we could do better."
Werner wants an inquiry into the system from top to bottom.
"Sylvia died because the system is flawed and broken and doesn't work," he said, adding it didn't give her a chance to survive.
