Former prisoner launches $1M suit
A former prisoner at the Ottawa-Carleton Detention Centre who alleges that a jail doctor failed to diagnose a serious chest infection that required hospitalization is suing the province for $1 million.
Richard Faucher also alleges in a statement of claim filed this week that the lack of treatment at the Innes Road jail led to his coming down with pneumonia and bronchitis. According to Faucher, jail staff failed to respond to his repeated requests for medical attention after he was returned to the jail and put in a segregation cell following a 17-day stay in the hospital.
None of the allegations has been proven in court. The Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services, which oversees the jail, and the doctor, Robert Taite, have yet to file statements of defence.
Faucher’s lawsuit is the fourth filed against the province by a former Ottawa-Carleton Detention prisoner in the past 10 months. It also isn’t the first complaint by a prisoner about the lack of medical treatment in the jail, although it appears to be the first lawsuit alleging medical malpractice.
In his statement of claim, Faucher alleges he was a prisoner at the detention centre in May, 2012, when he developed cold-like symptoms, including a headache and dry cough. Faucher alleges he made several requests for medical attention as his conditions worsened, but it wasn’t until June 12 that he was able to see Dr. Taite.
Faucher says Dr. Taite told him his symptoms were the result of bruised ribs due to over-exertion. It wasn’t until two weeks later that Faucher was seen again, and was prescribed the antibiotic Biaxin, but no further tests were done, according to the statement of claim. The next day he was seen by Dr. Taite again. Faucher said he told the doctor about his cough and sweats and was given Tylenol.
Six days later, Faucher alleges, he vomited after a coughing spell in a holding cell. He was found pale and feverish, with an elevated heart rate, and was sent to The Ottawa Hospital. At the hospital, he was diagnosed with a chest infection and abscess. Doctors there gave him IV antibiotics and inserted a chest tube to drain the wound and re-expand a compressed lung, the statement of claim alleges.
Faucher alleges he was returned to the jail July 19 with a chest tube and drainage valve in place but was placed in a segregation cell instead of a medical unit. He was plunging a toilet two days later when his chest tube came out. He was sent back to hospital, but the chest tube was not replaced.
Faucher alleges the abscess remained on Aug. 9 and that he later contracted viral bronchitis and pneumonia that required another stay in hospital.
The statement of claim alleges the complications he suffered were preventable had the ministry, Dr. Taite and jail staff “not delayed in co-ordinating appropriate access to health care treatment and followup for Richard, and had he been diagnosed appropriately at the outset.”
Faucher accuses the jail doctor of negligently performing examinations, failing to perform proper tests and failing to properly care for him, among other allegations. Faucher alleges the ministry failed to adequately train guards, staff, doctors, nurses and other medical staff, failed to appreciate the severity of his condition, and failed to provide care and treatment that met the applicable standard.
Court records indicate the 34-year-old Faucher had been in the jail after being charged with several gun offences. He was later convicted of possessing a firearm with ammunition, unauthorized possession of a firearm in a vehicle, and possession of a firearm while unauthorized. He was sentenced to two years and four months. Faucher had previously been convicted of drug trafficking, according to court records.