IQALUIT - The RCMP's major crimes unit in Winnipeg is investigating what is being treated as an in-custody death at the Iqaluit RCMP detachment, according to Supt. Eaton, criminal operations officer with the Iqaluit RCMP.

A 52-year-old female patient taken to Qikiqtani General Hospital on Aug. 9 with head injuries sustained from falling down a flight of stairs was arrested at the hospital for causing a disturbance and spent more than 12 hours in police custody. She later died in an Ottawa hospital from injuries incurred before she was brought to the hospital. - Kassina Ryder/NNSL photo

A 52-year-old Nunavut woman died in an Ottawa hospital on Aug. 14 after being arrested and removed from the Qikiqtani General hospital in Iqaluit on Aug. 9, Eaton said.

The woman had sustained head injuries after falling down the stairs at Iqaluit's Nova Inn after midnight on Aug. 9, Eaton said. An ambulance was called and she was taken to the hospital's emergency ward.

The woman was intoxicated and caused a disturbance at the hospital, Eaton said.

Members of the RCMP were at the hospital on unrelated business when hospital staff asked them to remove the woman from the building.

"We had members there on an unrelated issue and she was causing a disturbance and the hospital staff alerted the members to this woman and asked that she be removed," Eaton said.

RCMP arrested the woman at approximately 3 a.m. and hospital staff requested that she be returned to the hospital when she was sober, Eaton said.

In the afternoon of Aug. 9, RCMP contacted Qikiqtani General Hospital to return the woman to the hospital but were told the emergency room was full.

"They actually called and asked if they could bring her up at one point in the afternoon and they were busy," he said. "They didn’t have any beds for her at that point." At approximately 5:20 p.m., staff monitoring the woman noticed that she was in "apparent medical distress."

"She was laying on the floor of the cell and I believe the matron looked at her and she just didn’t look right," Eaton said.

He said another staff member was called and they went into the cell to check on the woman.

"They went in the cell and checked her and she was unresponsive," he said. "She was breathing and everything but was unresponsive so they called right away."

Staff called an ambulance and she was brought to Qikiqtani General where it was determined that the woman should be medevaced to Ottawa.

She died in an Ottawa hospital on Aug. 14 due to the injuries incurred before she was brought to Qikiqtani General on Aug. 9, stated an RCMP press release.

As of press time, Eaton said he couldn't confirm whether the woman had been seen by a medical practitioner at the hospital prior to her arrest because the officer who filed the report was out of town.

"We're trying to get his notes so we can confirm that, but our understanding is she was brought in by ambulance so we're assuming that somebody looked at her," he said. Eaton said the incident is being investigated by the RCMP's major crimes unit in Winnipeg.

"An investigation is underway concerning the complete circumstances of the incident, including an operational and administrative review," the press release said. Eaton said the woman's name is not being released until RCMP have notified her family.