The mother of a 17-year-old girl who died after she hanged herself at Health Sciences Centre last year is suing the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority and health-care workers, claiming their negligence led to her death.
The mother’s claim, filed in Court of King’s Bench last week by lawyer Martin Pollock on behalf of the family, is seeking more than $130,000 in damages under the Fatal Accidents Act, including for funeral expenses.
The lawsuit names two nurses, a doctor and the WRHA as defendants. None has responded to the lawsuit with statements of defence.
The claim alleges the health authority and its employees owed the teenager a duty of care and the health authority can be held vicariously liable for acts and omissions of its staff.
The teen girl suffered from mental illness, the lawsuit says.
On March 6 last year, the girl’s family took her to HSC’s emergency room, after she expressed suicidal thoughts to a school counsellor earlier that day.
The girl asked one of the defendant nurses to be admitted to the mental-health ward, where she had been admitted on prior occasions, but the nurse said she had to consult a doctor, the lawsuit claims.
The court filing claims the defendant doctor then met with the girl, who again asked to be admitted to the mental-health ward, but the doctor declined and relocated her to another room in the hospital, where she was attended to by the second defendant nurse.
The mother alleges she left the room so her daughter could speak with the nurse and that when she returned, her daughter was agitated and said the nurse scolded her and told her she would be sent home.
The teen again told her mother she wanted to go to the mental-health ward and then asked to go to the washroom, the court filing claims.
The court documents claim the girl then hanged herself with a cellphone charging cable in the washroom and was declared brain dead on March 10, 2023.
The mother’s lawsuit claims the nurses and doctor were negligent, including by failing to confiscate any items that could be used for suicide, failing to recognize her daughter as a suicide risk, being “dismissive” of the teen’s mental state and failing to consult a child psychiatrist or other specialist, among other allegations.
The lawsuit alleges the health authority was negligent in failing to have a suicide-prevention protocol, particularly by failing to instruct employees to ask about and confiscate items that could be used in hangings.
erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca
Erik Pindera
Reporter
Erik Pindera is a reporter for the Free Press, mostly focusing on crime and justice. The born-and-bred Winnipegger attended Red River College Polytechnic, wrote for the community newspaper in Kenora, Ont. and reported on television and radio in Winnipeg before joining the Free Press in 2020. Read more about Erik.
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