Lawyer negligent or mistaken in bid to keep man on life support

KITCHENER — A Kitchener lawyer was ordered to pay $15,000 after putting in an emergency application to stop St. Mary’s General Hospital from taking her client off life support with no instructions from the patient or his family.

Ontario Superior Court Justice Harrison Arrell issued the judgment on costs against Georgiana Masgras, saying in the ruling that she was “at the very least negligent or mistaken” when preparing the material submitted for the injunction.

“She interfered in a dynamic and very personal family decision without any authority and submitted misleading material to the court,” Arrell wrote in the ruling released in late November.

Late in the evening on July 7, Masgras submitted the request to keep Fernando Ferreira, whom she represented as a result of a car accident that happened in December 2016, on life support after he suffered a severe heart attack. The judge issued the order the following morning.

The next day, counsel for the hospital and attending doctor brought an emergency motion to rescind the order before another judge, who granted it based on new information. That included deterioration of the patient’s condition, compromising the likelihood of organ donation.

Life support was withdrawn and the patient died shortly after.

Arrell said a number of facts in the affidavit provided by Masgras were “inaccurate and misleading,” including the portrayal of the patient’s family.

“The affidavit indicates that the decision to withdraw Mr. Ferreira’s life support was not carefully considered by Mr.

Ferreira’s family.

“That facts would appear to be that the decision of the family was indeed carefully considered by some 25 members, most of whom were well aware of Mr. Ferreira’s desire to not live in a vegetative state, and if possible, to donate his organs,” the ruling read.

“As well, there appears to have been an extensive consultation by the family with the various doctors and specifically the treating physician.”

Arrell said it was now clear that Masgras was not acting on instructions from the patient or his family, and that he wouldn’t have issued the order he did if he had all the facts.

“I have concluded that this application was brought without instructions.

“It was also brought for relief that Mr. Ferreira’s family did not want, and they believed, quite correctly, Mr. Ferreira would not have wanted, had he been capable of knowing the complete picture of his medical condition and prognosis.”

Arrell also noted the hospital and doctor were slow to engage counsel after finding out about the application, “in what was obviously a situation where time was of the essence.”

He said the amount requested by the respondents — St. Mary’s and Dr. Chris Hinkewich — was excessive, adding that they should have had protocol in place to be able to respond to the situation much faster and avoid incurring as much cost as they did.

Arrell fixed the costs at $15,000 in total, with each respondent receiving $7,500.

In an email on Friday, Masgras said: “I did what I believed was in the best interests of Mr. Ferreira. I decline further comment.”

St. Mary’s declined to comment on the judgment.