“Someone's going to die in that hallway” – Winnipeg Free Press

Janice Thomas was gasping for breath, hoping someone would rush to save her life when she suffered an anaphylactic reaction.

He thought he was in the right place – the emergency room at St. Boniface Hospital – but as he struggled to breathe, no nurse, doctor or medical assistant checked on him.

During the 20-minute ordeal last month, he was ignored from the moment he arrived in the emergency room hallway until he was taken to the treatment area.

The hospital has since apologized, but Thomas wants to investigate the critical incident to ensure procedures are changed the next time an anaphylactic patient visits.

“They said I was a failure,” Thomas, 62, said Monday. “Their excuse was that they were too busy. No solution offered…

“I could have become critical and they apologize. Now you have to worry not only about not being able to breathe, but also about whether you will survive in the hospital.

“Someone's going to die in this hallway.”

At work on April 17, Thomas ordered chicken vermicelli from a restaurant and forgot to mention that he was allergic to shellfish. Food is contaminated with each other during preparation.

He immediately realized that he had an allergic reaction and left the job. After coming home, Thomas began to have trouble breathing. She gave herself a dose of epinephrine and called 911.

Paramedics arrived quickly and drove to St. Boniface Hospital, performing another epi-shot en route.

When he got to the hospital, things went wrong, Thomas said.

“They put me in the corridor where I couldn't breathe,” she said. “The paramedics said the room was coming.

“I was having a hard time trying to get air, all I could do was keep myself breathing. I was whistling loudly.”

According to Thomas, a man sitting on a stretcher in the same hall as his 90-year-old mother began to raise his voice, telling someone to bring him oxygen.

No nurse came, Thomas said, but a paramedic brought him oxygen and put in nasal prongs, “but my throat was closed, so I couldn't get air.

“I sat on the stretcher for more than 20 minutes, unable to breathe. With an anaphylactic reaction, I was considered life or death. I can't wait for the room. During this time, no staff from St. Boniface Hospital came to check on me.''

When Thomas finally entered the treatment area, medical staff brought in more needles filled with epinephrine and connected him to an IV.

“One of the nurses said she could hear me trying to breathe down the hall. This comment still bothers me.”

“One of the nurses said she could hear me trying to breathe down the hall. This comment still bothers me.”

Thomas said he was later told by St. Boniface patients that he was checked in as a Level 2 emergency patient, one step below the most serious cases. The Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians recommends checking every 15 minutes on a Level 2 emergency patient on its website.

Even in the treatment area, Thomas said, he ignored it once he was stabilized. When he showed the nurse that the IV had “popped” the vein — which he photographed when it was the size of a tennis ball — “the nurse threw a compress on me and walked away.”

She said another nurse came in, “freaked out” and switched the IV to the other arm.

Thomas felt better a few hours later and left the hospital knowing he had EpiPens at home.

Winnipeg Regional Health spokeswoman Thomas said the hospital's intensive care unit was full of patients when Thomas arrived, “after checking with normal vital signs, a nurse left to clear space in the intensive care room.

“We don't want to say we didn't respond to patient needs — we did.”

A spokeswoman said the hospital's patient engagement team had spoken to Thomas and “we encourage the patient to discuss any other concerns about their care with the team as they are best placed to help address these questions and concerns”.

Molly McCracken, interim spokeswoman for the Manitoba Health Coalition, said what happened to Thomas shouldn't happen to anyone.

“Having adequate staffing in the ER is critical to helping patients in need and preventing serious incidents,” McCracken said.

“This horrific incident shows that Manitoba's health care system is still under stress and adds urgency to our calls for the Manitoba government to provide adequate staffing to help people in life and death situations.”

Progressive Conservative health critic Kathleen Cook called the incident “a horrifying and terrifying experience for anyone to go through” … and her motivation is to make sure no one else has to go through it.

“I think the minister should look into this as a serious incident because, as Janice said, she could have died. And, more broadly, I think it speaks to something that could be caused by a shortage of staff. There weren't enough staff in the emergency room that day to check on him and make sure he was OK – he wasn't.”

Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara said he appreciated Thomas raising his concerns.

“It's a priority for me and my government that every Manitoban who walks into an emergency room gets the care they need,” Asagwara said. “It is important that we listen.

“Our top priority is staffing the health care system and making sure every bed has a nurse at the bedside … it's people like Janice who give us feedback that helps us improve health care.”

Thomas said she is still pushing for the hospital or WRHA to investigate what happened to her as a serious incident.

“If I can save one person's life or change their policy, I'll be happy,” he said.

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Kevin Rollason
Reporter

Kevin Rollason is one of the most versatile reporters at the Winnipeg Free Press. Whether it covers city hall, the courts, or general reporting, you can count on Rollason to not only answer the 5 Ws—who, what, when, where, and why—but to do so in an engaging and accessible way for readers. .

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