UPDATE: 1:10 p.m.
A 70-year-old Kamloops woman passed away while waiting for care in Royal Inland Hospital’s emergency room early this morning.
One of the woman’s daughters, Amanda Young, said her sister took her mother to the hospital at about 8 p.m. on Tuesday night, complaining of stomach pains.
“They did her vitals and everything, and they found she had some low potassium levels,” Young said.
“At 2 a.m. or so, my sister said my mom kind of seemed like she checked her pulse a bit, because she was doing that because they weren’t getting in. And she said she didn’t feel a pulse, and she was looking at her and she just looked like she was not there. And so she starting yelling for help, and then they tried to resuscitate her with no success. She was already gone.”
Another witness described the scene as “very upsetting” to the dozens of other people in the waiting room at the time, as well as staff who were “slammed last night.”
Young lives in Calgary and wasn’t in Kamloops during the situation, but she was concerned that her mother was triaged for six hours before her passing.
“My sister said it was just full. There was no help. I don’t really know what the waiting room looked like, I didn’t actually ask her about that part. But six hours, for an older, elderly person. And (my sister) said with everything happening right now in the hospital, they just triaged her. And with what her symptoms were it was just sit and wait,” she said.
“It’s hard. I don’t want to blame anybody, because obviously these things happen to people. And that’s not really what it’s about for us right now anyways. It’s just about obviously grieving our mother. Just in general, we’re also hoping and praying this doesn’t happen to someone else.”
Royal Inland Hospital has been suffering from an acute nursing shortage, especially in the ER where approximately two-thirds of their staff have reportedly quit or transferred out, due to burnout exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Right now, 13 of 17 intensive care unit beds at the hospital are currently occupied by COVID-19 patients. An ER physician said last week that RIH is seeing its worst influx of COVID-19 patients “by far” during the pandemic, which is also absorbing staffing resources that would be used elsewhere in the hospital.
In a statement to NL News, Interior Health says it was unable to comment on specifics of the case, citing privacy concerns.
“Interior Health reviews all unexpected deaths that occur in a hospital to determine what took place,” the statement said. “We know these are very difficult situations for all those who are impacted and our thoughts are with those impacted.”
“Our priority at Royal Inland Hospital is to ensure emergency department patients are triaged and seen in a timely fashion, and that they receive care based on the urgency of their needs.”
– with files from Colton Davies
