Inquest begins in death of patient sent home in taxi

Heather Brenan, 68, died in Winnipeg in January 2012. An inquest has been called into her death.

The daughter of a woman who died shortly after she was sent home in a taxi from a Winnipeg hospital says staff treated her mother like an "inconvenience."

After being discharged from Seven Oaks Hospital in January 2012, Heather Brenan, 68, collapsed on her doorstep. She was then rushed back to hospital where she died from a blood-clot that had made its way to her lungs.

Brenan's daughter, Dana, testified Monday on the first day of an inquest into her mother’s death.

"I just hope to get justice for my mother. She didn't deserve to die -- not the way she died," Dana Brenan said outside court.

Brenan initially went to the emergency room at Seven Oaks after experiencing pain in her throat and difficulty eating. Four days later, she was discharged in the middle of the night, without her house keys, on the basis that she was medically stable.

The hospital had contacted one of Brenan's friends, who had a spare set of keys, to meet her at her home. Brenan was dropped off by a taxi at the same time as her friend arrived. But she collapsed on her doorstep.

After paramedics arrived, they transported her back to hospital where she died the next day.

Dana Brenan -- who lived in London, England, at the time -- said the hospital saw her mother as "an inconvenience" and simply wanted to "get rid of her." She told the court Monday that her mother had been in the emergency department at the hospital but was never given a bed.

"I get the sense patient flow is more important to the administration of the hospital and the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority than actually curing patients," Brenan told the inquest.

"This shouldn't happen to anyone."

Brenan said that the fact the hospital sent her mother home without her own house keys showed a lack of concern.

"She was bundled up into a taxi and sent home without her house keys, and that (shows) really callous indifference. They knew she didn't have her keys," Brenan said.

She added that her mother should have been given an acute-care bed instead of being put in a taxi.

"Because she wasn't writhing in pain, because she was dignified, it was assumed that she wasn't ill. And she was ill," said Brenan.

However, Bill Olson, a lawyer for Winnipeg's regional health authority, insists that the medical consensus is that Brenan's death "could not have been predicted."

"In all likelihood, (her death) would have occurred whether your mother was in hospital or not," Olson said.

He added that she was repeatedly tested in the emergency room and was deemed "medically stable."

The incident has sparked a debate surrounding discharge policies, taxi rides from hospitals and the treatment of patients in the health care system.

The inquest is set to hear from 24 witnesses, including nurses who watched over Brenan and the doctor who discharged her from the hospital.

Dana Brenan's lawyer says he hopes the process will help repair flaws in the system.

"We all have grandparents and parents that are going to go through the system one day and hopefully this inquest will help solve the problems of people being sent home when they're not ready," said Deryk Coward.

The Winnipeg Regional Health Authority says its transportation policy has already been altered after the deaths of two other patients in 2013 who died on their doorsteps after returning home in taxis.

These changes include following up with patients when they get home, and giving taxi drivers a specific set of instructions when driving people home from the emergency room.

When preparing for the inquest, Brenan said she discovered there were three additional cases where people were sent home in a cab before being rushed back to hospital.

She added that it doesn't seem as though the health authority or the hospital has learned anything from her mother's death.

Brenan said the hospital's treatment of her mother showed a "callous" disregard for a "very ill person."

"While she might have ultimately died ... collapsing in the back lane and perhaps freezing to death is such an undignified way to go," Brenan said.

"Taking her off all her medication and sending her home under stressful circumstances were all contributing factors.

Brenan said she will remember her mother as a kind woman who enjoyed gardening, the outdoors and reading.

The inquest, which is scheduled to take place over the next three weeks, was called by Manitoba's chief medical examiner. The aim is to probe Brenan's death and to examine hospital policy regarding the release of "patients at night, particularly those who are elderly, frail and who reside alone."

It is also expected to determine if a shortage of acute-care beds may have factored into Brenan's death.

With a report from CTV Winnipeg's Josh Crabb and files from The Canadian Press