HSC ER TAPES SPARK INQUEST

Winnipeg Free Press - February 5, 2009

"I didn't feel the need to review the videotape myself... My information is that he did not formally present himself to the triage desk. If that's later found to be incorrect, then we'll learn that from the inquest. What is not in dispute, I don't believe, was Mr. Sinclair was not triaged." Dr. Brock Wright, WRHA chief medical officer and senior vice-president of clinical services - Feb 4, 2009

Oh my goodness, Mr. Sinclair dies on September 21, 2008 while waiting in the HSC waiting room to receive care. He is a 45 year old double amputee, who has a blocked catheter. All he needed was for someone to fix his catheter and he would be on his merry way. However, after 34 hours of waiting he had not been seen by a doctor or nurse. He was not triaged - yet videotape shows that the spoke with an employee at the triage desk. A horrified person in the waiting room discovers Mr. Sinclair has passed away unnoticed and had been dead for about 3 hours.

Mr. Sinclair dies of a bladder infection caused by his blocked catheter - a treatable condition.

What I haven't told you is that Mr. Sinclair is considered a street person who is aboriginal. He apparently was well known to staff and had visited several times. Somehow he fell through the cracks.

Thank goodness we have Dr. Balachandra, Chief Medical Examiner who shoots straight from the hip and tells it like it is. He has called an offical inquest into Sinclair's death.

I AM SOOO BLESSED

Ever wonder what it would be like to live on 2 meals of rice and beans a day? What about rice, beans and tortillas 3 times a day?

This is a challenge taken up by the people in the church I attend. Riverwood Church Community has taken on the challenge of eating like half the world's population. You see Riverwood sponsors two care points in Swaziland. Attenders of Riverwood raise money for resources like:

• a well for clean drinking water
• a fence around the care point to establish property lines
  
• a garden will soon be built to feed 50+ children who gather at the care point
• two young women who are dedicated to teach, laugh and play with the children and act as role models
  

A care point is a meeting place where children gather from miles away. It is at this care point that they receive care, food and a very basic education. Often these kids are orphans of parents who have died because of Aids. Left to fend for themselves they struggle to survive an existence that I can not even begin to comprehend.

As a family we have sponsored a little 6 year old girl named Thobelile - I hope that one day we will get to meet her face to face.

Our hope and prayer for Thobelile is that she will have the opportunity to grow to be a healthy young woman who's story will be one of courage, faith and hope in a world that seems to be crumbling around her.

I think it's important to take a step back from our every day lives and realize how blessed we are. In North America we get so caught up in must haves and need to haves that we forget that we've already got more than half the world.

I am sooo blessed.