Race a factor in negligent care that led to Indigenous woman's death at Winnipeg hospital, lawsuit alleges

The daughter of a 68-yearold Indigenous woman who died at Winnipeg's Grace Hospital in 2022 alleges her mother's race played a role in negligent medical care that caused her death.

Kelly Medwick, the daugh‐ ter of Jean Kemash, is suing the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority, the Grace Hospital, two doctors and two nurses after her mother died at the hospital on April 19, 2022, ac‐ cording to a statement of claim filed Monday at the Manitoba Court of King's Bench.

The lawsuit identifies Ke‐ mash, 68, as Indigenous, and alleges her Indigeneity "was part of the chain of negligent acts and misconduct" by the doctors, nurses, the health authority and Grace Hospital that caused her death.

None of the accusations have been proven in court. Statements of defence have not yet been filed.

Kemash, who had a his‐ tory of several respiratory conditions, sought care at the Grace Hospital's emer‐ gency department on the evening of April 15, 2022, af‐ ter days of experiencing an increasing shortness of breath and chills, the suit says.

She was admitted to the hospital and assessed by a doctor that night.

The doctor examined Ke‐ mash again on April 18, the suit says. She was moved to the emergency department's resuscitation room less than two hours later, as she had become more medically un‐ stable and was experiencing confusion, disorientation, low blood pressure and a lack of oxygen.

An emergency room doc‐ tor ordered a chest X-ray and blood work for Kemash that day. The initial doctor re‐ sponsible for caring for Ke‐ mash said he would reassess her but never did so, ac‐ cording to the statement of claim.

Kemash's oxygen require‐ ments escalated throughout the day, it says.

Kemash's other daughter told a nurse that her family was concerned about a plan to move Kemash to an in-pa‐ tient ward, which they thought would be dangerous given her condition, but those concerns were ignored, according to the lawsuit.

Wrist restraints used: suit

Kemash was transferred to the in-patient ward around 10 p.m. on April 18.

She remained under the care of the initial doctor, but a psychiatry resident com‐ pleting his four-week internal medicine component was re‐ sponsible for providing direct care to her, the suit says.

The resident failed to re‐ assess Kemash even though nursing staff told him her condition was unstable, ac‐ cording to the lawsuit. He was not competent to care for Kemash and did not con‐ sult with the initial doctor or a senior resident, the suit al‐ leges.

The resident also failed to follow proper procedure when using Bluetooth respi‐ ratory monitoring devices, af‐ ter a nurse connected one to Kemash but left it at the end of the hallway where it could not be heard, according to the statement of claim.

The suit also alleges the

nurse failed to make hourly checks on Kemash as re‐ quired by protocol, or to pro‐ vide scheduled medications.

Sometime after 3 a.m. on April 19, the nurse put wrist restraints on Kemash. The suit doesn't indicate any rea‐ son for doing so, and says it was done "in a manner in‐ consistent with the [Win‐ nipeg Regional Health Au‐ thority] and the hospital policy."

The nurse did not monitor Kemash between then and about 5:20 a.m., when Ke‐ mash became agitated, expe‐ riencing extreme breathless‐ ness, according to the suit. A code blue - an alert that calls all nurses to the floor where an incident is happening was then called.

Kemash was pronounced dead at 5:50 a.m., after about 25 minutes of failed resusci‐ tation efforts, the suit says.

'Potential unconscious bias'

The Winnipeg health au‐ thority's Indigenous services unit was involved in a criticalincident process following

Kemash's death that "made reference to the potential of unconscious bias by staff against Indigenous patients which resulted in hospital staff receiving training to be aware of and to avoid" such bias, the suit says.

A critical incident is de‐ fined by the province as a case where a patient suffers "serious and unintended harm" while receiving health care.

The two doctors and two nurses in the suit breached a duty of care owed to Kemash because they did not provide her with "the level of skill and care" that would be reason‐ ably expected from medical professionals with their train‐ ing, according to the state‐ ment of claim.

The Grace Hospital and the health authority breached their duty to pro‐ vide her with competent staff who could give her safe and reliable care, the suit alleges.

The WRHA also failed to ensure that the unconscious bias of hospital staff against Kemash due to her Indi‐ geneity did not result in a poorer quality of care, it claims.

Medwick, who is the ex‐ ecutrix of her mother's es‐ tate, is seeking damages that include general damages, punitive damages, and funer‐ al and burial costs.

Kemash left behind a hus‐ band, two daughters and five grandchildren, the suit says.

Both Medwick's lawyer and a representative for the WRHA declined to comment on the lawsuit.