Nurse tells inquiry check on man waiting in Winnipeg ER didn't seem urgent

WINNIPEG -- A nurse working in a hospital emergency room where a man died during a 34-hour wait for care says he was asked by a junior nurse to check on the double amputee.

But Rob Malo told an inquest Monday into Brian Sinclair's death that the request didn't seem urgent. He said he finished some triage paperwork before he looked into the waiting area.

"There was nothing in the waiting room, no group of people around an individual," he said. "There wasn't any commotion."

Minutes later, Sinclair's lifeless body was discovered by a security guard and wheeled into the resuscitation room. He was pronounced dead almost immediately.

It was only after Sinclair was found lifeless that Malo realized the 45-year-old had been in the ER waiting room for two days.

Sinclair went to the Winnipeg Health Sciences Centre on Sept. 19, 2008, after he hadn't urinated for 24 hours. He spoke to a triage aide upon his arrival and then wheeled himself into the waiting room.

Some 34 hours later, he was found dead of a treatable bladder infection caused by a blocked catheter.

Although Sinclair vomited several times while he deteriorated in the waiting room, he was never examined by a medical professional. Rigor mortis had begun to set in by the time he was discovered.

Malo said he had checked during his previous shift to see if Sinclair had a hospital admissions bracelet, but didn't see one. At the time, Sinclair had been sitting in his wheelchair in the waiting room for about 15 hours.

Sinclair was asleep at the time and Malo said it didn't strike him as usual. People regularly came in seeking shelter, while others had been discharged and were waiting for a ride, Malo said.

"There were always more people in the waiting room than there were charts."

It never occurred to him that Sinclair had been waiting for hours without being formally triaged or examined, Malo said.

"People don't tend to sit for three, four, five hours and not approach somebody," he said. "People are usually pretty livid by the time four hours rolls around and they haven't been called."

The inquest is scheduled to sit this week before resuming again in February, when it is expected to examine the broader issue of hospital wait times and backlogs.