Stanton head welcomes review
Coroner recommends an examination of the care given to Lori Peddle, who died of complications from blood clots after a long flight in 2015
John McFadden
Northern News Services
Friday, January 13, 2017
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
The chief operating officer of Stanton Territorial Hospital welcomes a recommendation from NWT chief coroner Cathy Menard that the hospital review patient care given to a woman who died at the hospital in 2015.
Lori Peddle is pictured with her husband Jeff Peddle on Nov. 11, 2015 in Las Vegas. Four days later, Peddle died at Stanton Territorial Hospital after complaining of shortness of breath. NWT chief coroner Cathy Menard has recommended a review of the patient care Peddle received at Stanton before she died. - photo courtesy of Facebook |
Colin Goodfellow said hospital staff would be looking at the death of Lori Peddle even without the coroner's recommendation, to examine what could have been done differently to prevent her death.
"The death was unusual and we would look at that regardless," he said. "Now that we have the coroner's recommendation our job is to go from end to end of the care and see, if we had a similar patient present, would we do anything differently."
Goodfellow said he will report the review's findings to Sue Cullen, chief executive officer for the NWT Health and Social Services Authority, who in turn is expected to report back to the coroner.
Menard has called for a full internal review on its policy, protocol and procedures on the patient care given to Peddle. The 42-year-old Yellowknife woman died at hospital on Nov. 15, 2015, at which time the NWT Coroner Service was called in to investigate.
According to Menard, Peddle had returned to the city after a trip to Las Vegas when she complained she'd experienced a shortness of breath both on the trip and when she returned home. She went to the hospital in the morning on the day before she died, where she was admitted and treated with steroids and oxygen. Early the next morning, Peddle went into medical distress and became unresponsive. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation efforts were unsuccessful and she was pronounced dead, Menard stated.
An autopsy revealed she had blood clots blocking the arteries of both lungs and blood clots in her right leg, which caused the clots that travelled to her lungs. She also had an enlarged heart and granular kidneys, often seen in patients with high blood pressure. Menard ruled that contributing factors in her death included long periods of immobility due to her plane flight and obesity. She classified the death as natural.
"The coroner does not look for fault or blame. We are not the crime fighters. We are fact finders," said Menard. "We make recommendations in cases where we think maybe under similar circumstances in the future, future deaths could be prevented."
Menard said along with her recommendation for a review, she has provided comments to give it a little more context.
"Anytime the coroner's service makes recommendations - they are not legally binding but we hope they get careful consideration," she said. "They carry that weight. We hope they are followed through on."
Former MLA Darryl Dolynny, a pharmacist who at one time was Peddle's employer at Shoppers Drug Mart, told Yellowknifer he applauds the coroners office for its recommendation.
"Clearly, this was a very sad and bizarre case, where one hopes to find procedural verification or maybe policy changes for better health outcomes," he stated.
Jeff Peddle, Lori's widower, had no comment when reached by phone on Monday.
