Philippe Morin
Northern News Services
Wednesday, March 7, 2007

YELLOWKNIFE - The husband of a Tuktoyaktuk woman who died last month during routine wrist surgery at Stanton Territorial Hospital is still waiting for answers.

Paul Voudrach is still awaiting autopsy results, but believes his wife Norma's death might be connected to a cup of coffee, which she drank before her operation on Feb. 19.

Patients are usually denied food and drink 12 hours before surgery to prevent them from asphyxiating under general anesthesia, but Voudrach said the 56-year-old mother of 10 was not expecting surgery that day.

"She was well under the expectation that her operation was going to be on Tuesday, because she was just going in for a pre-op appointment Monday," he said.

"She had been drinking coffee a few minutes before her appointment, and although she advised the doctors of this, they still went ahead with the surgery under anaesthetic," he said.

According to Voudrach, doctors told him his wife's death was caused by bile from her stomach regurgitating into her lungs.

When doctors tried to clear her lungs she went into cardiac arrest, he said.

Percy Kenney, chief coroner of the NWT, said it's too early to determine what happened.

He said lab work is still being done in Edmonton, and final results are not expected for 10 to 12 weeks.

"We sent her out for postmortem, and we've got some preliminary results. We're continuing to investigate the circumstances surrounding the death," he said.

Asked whether a cup of coffee could contribute to a patient's death in the manner Voudrach described, Kinney declined to comment, saying he would prefer to wait for the autopsy results.

"I think it's a bit early at this point, these are preliminary findings, and we'll see what the ultimate findings are at the end of the day," said Kinney.

"It will either answer the questions we have or bring up more," he said.

Voudrach said he has since hired a lawyer, and may sue the hospital.

In the meantime, he would like to get some answers from hospital management.

"I'm not going to stop, I'm going to go ahead, because no one has contacted me, no one has given me information, nobody has even said they're sorry, other than the doctor that told me what happened," he said.

A funeral service was held for Norma Voudrach in Tuktoyaktuk on Feb.28.

Voudrach said the service was held at the hamlet's multipurpose building, Kitti Hall, because the church could not hold all the mourners.

"We had a lot of people calling and sending their condolences from right across Canada," he added.

Representatives from Stanton Hospital could not be reached for comment as of press time.