SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - The family of a Lutsel K'e woman who passed away at Stanton Territorial Hospital on July 28 has concerns about the elder's care – more specifically what they say was a lack of care.

The family of Bernadette Bertha Lockhart wants to know how a "comfort only" order – which they believe is a form of a do-not-resuscitate order – was in place for the 61-year-old without their knowledge or consent.

"It was shocking," said Barb Fournier, a daughter of Lockhart.

Fournier believes her mother may have survived without the comfort-only order, noting, "they weren't taking care of her body."

Fournier said she saw "comfort only" written on a hospital document that was later obtained by the coroner.

"No one really knew where it happened or who put it on," said Fourier, who lives in Ontario, but came to Yellowknife for a period of time while her mother was in the hospital.

Doctors said it was up to Joe Lockhart, the patient's husband, to decide on stopping treatment, which he was not prepared to do, according to Fournier.

She said the family was told an order did not have to be signed, but could be agreed to verbally.

"We don't know how it happened," she said. "There was nothing ever written or verbal."

Tu Nedhe MLA Tom Beaulieu said Joe Lockhart told him he signed a do not resuscitate (DNR) order without understanding what it was, and that he told a doctor to ignore the DNR order at a July 26 meeting that Beaulieu had arranged.

"The doctor had no issue with that being scrapped," Beaulieu said of the DNR order. The MLA said, as he understands it, the order was removed.

However, Fournier said Beaulieu misunderstood what her stepfather was saying at the meeting. She insisted he had never signed the order.

Fournier said the matter may have been complicated by communication problems. While members of her family speak English, she said they are more comfortable in Chipewyan and some have difficulty understanding medical terms.

She would often get calls in Ontario from relatives asking what certain words meant. Fournier said the hospital provided no Chipewyan translators for the family, apparently because they spoke English.

"They were translating among themselves," she said of her family members.

She also said it felt like doctors and nurses were avoiding her family.

"Through the whole thing, I really felt there was no communication," she said.

Fournier said the family needs to know what happened, adding, "They are so angry at the hospital and the system."

Bernadette Lockhart was in the Yellowknife hospital for a lung biopsy on June 30. After the procedure, she suffered a heart attack and seizures in the recovery room, depriving her brain of oxygen for 16 minutes.

The elder was placed in the intensive care unit. The family was told the elder was brain dead.

"They (medical staff) were letting her body go because, in their minds, she was in a coma and was never going to wake up," Fournier said.

However, Fournier now wonders whether there was brain activity and whether her mother may have briefly regained consciousness.

She said family members still witnessed her yawn, move her arms and feet, and tears would fall out of her eyes.

"They (medical staff) kept telling us that was a normal reaction," she said.

She said the family will probably hire a lawyer to look into the case.

The family brought in a medicine woman from the south as their last hope.

"The healers did make it to see my mother, but she was so deteriorated at that point," Fournier said.

No official from Stanton Hospital would comment on the case.

Garth Eggenberger, the chief coroner of the NWT, ordered an autopsy because of concerns raised by the family.

Eggenberger said a preliminary report on the autopsy has been completed and the family has been advised of its findings.

Fournier released the initial findings of the autopsy to News/North.

The preliminary report states the cause of death was hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy – basically the brain being starved of oxygen.

That was found to be due to cardiac arrest as a result of blocked arteries around the heart.

Eggenberger explained the conditions publicly, but only after he was informed that the family had released the preliminary findings of the autopsy.

"This is only what we've learned so far," he said last week, adding that the outcome could change with the final report on the autopsy. Eggenberger said a brain begins to suffer damage after just 30 seconds of being deprived of oxygen, and there is irreparable brain damage after five minutes.

The autopsy found no evidence of damage to Lockhart's lungs as a result of the procedure on June 30.

The coroner's report will be completed in three to six months, and made public after the final findings of the autopsy are known, Eggenberger said.

Along with concerns about communication between the family and the hospital, MLA Tom Beaulieu questions why a doctor performed the biopsy when he was leaving the hospital for another job the next day.

Beaulieu said he believes a doctor performing procedures requiring anesthesia should be at the hospital to remain involved in the patient's care.