Family wants answers
Woman’s frozen body found shortly after hospital stay
The death of a woman who apparently slipped away from a Winnipeg hospital while she was intoxicated by drugs could — and should — have been prevented, her family says.
The frozen body of Windy Sinclair, a 29-year-old mother of four, was found outside a Winnipeg apartment building Dec. 28. It was two days after she had been taken to hospital while she was hallucinating on crystal meth, her mother says. “Why didn’t they keep an eye on her at all times — for the safety of herself and to the others around her?” Eleanor Sinclair asked Thursday.
Her daughter’s death is the latest tragedy in the family. Eleanor Sinclair’s husband, Brian, died of pneumonia two years ago. Her son, Roderick, drowned in 2011 at the age of 22. He disappeared one day and his body washed up on a beach five months later, she said.
Windy Sinclair was struggling with drug addiction and was high on crystal meth and hallucinating after having Christmas dinner with the family, her mother said. The next morning, the younger woman called 911 and an ambulance came and took her to hospital.
“I said, ‘There’s no way for her to get back home’ ... and they said, ‘Oh, we’ll provide her with a taxi slip to come back home,”’ the mother said.
She said she later called Seven Oaks General Hospital and was first told her daughter had been treated and released. She made phone calls and posted messages on social media but no one had seen the hospitalized woman. Eleanor Sinclair called the hospital again on the 27th.
“And this time they said, ‘Oh, she was seen, but she left on her own and ... we don’t keep tabs on people that leave the hospital.”’