‘He had just had enough of waiting’: Man, 72, dies after leaving Brandon ER

SIOUX VALLEY DAKOTA NATION — The daughters of an Indigenous man who died hours after leaving the Brandon ER without being seen by a physician are seeking answers after they allege their dad was left in a wheelchair with an oxygen tank and never checked on.

Nicole Antoine, 35, and Caitlin Elk, 34, are pleading for accountability for their father’s death.

“We feel like his condition wasn’t taken serious and … we feel like he’s been neglected,” Antoine said.

Francis Elk, 72, was admitted to the emergency department at the Brandon Regional Health Centre on July 9 after a five-hour-long dialysis treatment at the hospital.

He had been in the ER for three hours when his wife found him slouched over, exhausted and low on oxygen, Antoine told the Sun.

She said staff told Francis’s wife that he was stable and would still have to wait to be seen by a doctor, and the two of them left to get a snack and rest for the night at a nearby hotel.

After spending roughly eight hours at the hospital, “he had just had enough of waiting” that day, Caitlin Elk said.

That night in the hotel, Francis was struggling to breathe, coughing and convulsing, Antoine said.

Around 1:30 a.m., an ambulance was called to the hotel room and he died shortly after, she said.

Antoine said she was told by hospital staff that the “higher-ups” would do an investigation, but she hasn’t been told anything about an investigation since.

The sisters said they want the health authority to investigate their father’s death and his experience in the ER.

Prairie Mountain Health wouldn’t grant an interview. A spokesperson said in a written statement to the Sun that patient safety is a priority.

“The organization has processes in place to review circumstances where there may be opportunities to learn and improve care,” the spokesperson wrote.

“The nature and scope of any review depends on the specific circumstances and is guided by our commitment to quality, patient safety, and continuous improvement,” the statement said.

The sisters said their father’s death “should have been” ruled as a critical incident.

Francis had been undergoing dialysis treatments at the Brandon hospital since 2020, which were often difficult for him, Antoine said.

“It makes him sick, makes him weak, makes him really hungry,” she said. When he was sent to the ER after his treatment on July 9, “he had low oxygen levels and couldn’t really breathe on his own.”

Caitlin said his health problems and renal failure “would ultimately lead to him eventually passing, but at least they could have made him comfortable in a room and call in his family.”

“Not just, you know, in pain and ignoring him in an ER,” she said.

Caitlin said physicians had told her that their dad was in the “end-of-life stage” of kidney failure and his death was determined as “natural cause … and that’s why they opted not to have the autopsy.”

“I just kind of feel like they neglected him,” Caitlin said.

“It still makes me upset that he was there all by himself and nobody cared. Nobody,” she said.

The two sisters said they’ve lost trust in the health-care system.

Nicole said from her living room in Sioux Valley Dakota Nation that she’ll hear stories of people passing away in the ER or read about discrimination, but “when it happens to you, just can’t help but feel personal about it.”

Caitlin interjected, “You feel helpless.”

When asked if the sisters thought their father’s death could have been avoided if he was checked on, they both said “yes.”

“It is unfortunately common for especially Indigenous people to experience that neglect and — I don’t want to say it — but racism in the wait rooms and ERs hospital,” Antoine said.

Caitlin said Francis was “always caring for others.”

“We would kind of get mad at him sometimes because you know — like say if we bring him food, he’ll give it away to somebody,” Caitlin said smiling.

His daughters described him as a “family man” to his seven kids and 13 grandchildren.

“He was not just another one of those statistics against discrimination against Indigenous people,” Caitlin said. “It’s not like that.”

He was caring, generous and respectful, the women said.

“He really helped his community … He always shook hands with everyone he came into contact with,” Caitlin said. “There’s a lot of people that miss him. He was a good man with a good heart, that’s why I want him to be remembered.”

Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara was unavailable for an interview on Friday, but a spokesperson for the province sent a statement by text message.

“Our thoughts are with the Elk family as they mourn the loss of their loved one. We recognize how difficult this experience has been and take the concerns they’ve raised about his care seriously,” the statement said.

“Patients may leave emergency departments before being seen for a variety of reasons, and we respect their ability to make decisions about their care,” it said.

“Our government is working with Prairie Mountain Health to improve access to emergency care, recruit more health-care professionals and address the pressures facing front-line staff and patients.”

A freedom of information request filed by the Manitoba Nurses Union found that 4,436 people left the Brandon ER without being seen, or 16.6 per cent, from April 1, 2025, to March 31, 2026.

The most recent month of information released through the request shows that in May of this year, 20.3 per cent of patients, or 448 people, left the Brandon emergency department without being seen.

From January to May of this year, roughly one in five patients left the Brandon ER without being seen by a physician, physician’s assistant or nurse practitioner, according to the data spreadsheet released under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.

» rgerrard@brandonsun.com