Liberals push for inquest into overdose-related Brandon death

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This article was published 11/10/2019 (2216 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitoba Liberals are calling on the province to order an inquest into the opioid-related death of a woman who had been living at the home of Brandon’s city manager.

Liberal Leader Dougald Lamont made the request, together with Liberal justice critic Jon Gerrard, in a letter Thursday to Justice Minister Cliff Cullen and Premier Brian Pallister.

Lamont also grilled Cullen during question period on Thursday.

“There needs to be a bigger picture of looking at this, not just in terms of how she died but the circumstances of her addiction and whether she was failed by addiction services as much as she was failed by anything else,” Lamont said during question period. “That’s part of what’s really important. There’s a bigger picture here that goes beyond any issue that’s criminal. … We have to talk about addictions because we have people who are dying of overdoses and it’s not even being reported.”

Cullen rebutted the line of questioning, tabling legislation that showed only the chief medical examiner can call for an inquest.

Christine Robin Mitchell, 30, had been living in Brandon city manager Rod Sage’s home for nearly five years. On July 10, she was taken to hospital for a suspected overdose , where she later died.

The CBC reported this week that three drug-related deaths linked to opioids — including Mitchell’s death — went unreported by hospitals this summer, prompting Manitoba’s chief medical examiner to alert doctors that reporting drug overdose deaths is mandatory under the law.

“While we’re not able to speak to many details related to a specific case, we can confirm that we work with health-care providers to ensure they understand their responsibilities under the legislation,” Prairie Mountain Health CEO Penny Gilson said in an emailed response to the Sun on Thursday.

“As any issues are assessed on a case-by-case basis, we’re also not able to provide details on specific outcomes. We understand the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner is providing clarity on reporting to providers province-wide, and will continue to work with the office to ensure providers report consistently.”

“We identified this gap and had discussions with Brandon Regional Health Authority as well as the office of the medical examiner, and I’m not going to speak specifically about other agencies, but there is now a policy in place where we will be notified of these (overdoses) as we move forward,” Brandon Police Service Chief Wayne Balcaen said Thursday.

“The issue that was there previously will no longer be there.”

Asked if he is concerned with how the reporting was being done — that there were other situations that may have been overlooked — Balcaen replied: “I think we identified something collectively and very quickly, and measures were put in place to ensure there was a fix.”

Arlene Last-Kolb, co-founder of a group called Overdose Awareness Manitoba, said Thursday there needs to be changes to prevent overdoses such as those that went unreported by hospitals.

Her son was 24 when he died from fentanyl poisoning in 2014.

“Medical examiners have to know what’s out there,” Last-Kolb said. “They have to know … if there’s certain drugs out there because they need to notify the police.”

It also helps the police identify where the drug are coming from, she said.

“So then you can bust (someone) and you can get the drugs off the street.”

Last-Kolb’s group, whose members have all lost someone to substance use, is asking people to write about their experiences, or their loved one’s experiences with Manitoba hospitals, and email them to overdoseawarenessmb@gmail.com by Oct. 23.

They then hope to present a representation of the letters to the provincial government.

“People don’t really know what’s going on, and every family that we’ve met has had an experience in hospitals or the health-care system,” Last-Kolb said.

The system isn’t working, she said, “So why do we keep doing the same thing?”

» brobertson@brandonsun.com, with files from Erin DeBooy and Jessica Botelho-Urbanski

» Twitter: @BudRobertson4