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Criminal-negligence
charges against two Toronto nurses in the death of 10-year-old Lisa Shore collapsed yesterday amid tears, applause and allegations of
inadequate police work and tampered-with evidence.
A
courtroom packed with 70 nurses and members of their families erupted in
joy after the Crown conceded that the evidence against nurses Ruth Doerksen
and Anagaile Soriano had eroded beyond repair.
Prosecutor
Hank Goody said that some Crown witnesses jolted his case with unexpected
testimony, while new information arose to tarnish the credibility of
others.
Ontario
Court Judge Ramez Khawly
praised Mr. Goody for his fairness and said the case epitomizes how justice
can go awry when the need to make a sound criminal case is overcome by a
rush to assign blame.
The
dramatic announcement ended just short of the halfway point in a
preliminary inquiry that had been scheduled to run for 10 weeks.
Lisa
was found dead in her bed at the Hospital for Sick Children on Oct. 22,
1998. She had been on
morphine all night to lessen the pain of a non-fatal condition affecting
her leg — reflex sympathetic dystrophy. In 2001, an inquest jury delivered
a verdict of "homicide," and Toronto Police arrested the two
overnight nurses.
Although
both women were visibly relieved yesterday, they expressed bitterness
toward the police and news-media outlets that gave a megaphone to those
demanding criminal charges.
"We've
been angry for a long time," said Ms. Doerksen, who said she may never
return to nursing. "We were not asked any questions from the very
beginning — right up to this day."
Ms.
Doerksen said the criminal charges compounded the continuing trauma of
wondering whether she could have done something to save Lisa's life.
Ms.
Soriano, 25, said it still amazes her that just four months after entering
nursing, Lisa's death and its aftermath changed her life forever. "I'm
going to be very anxious going back," she said. "What am I
supposed to do? Am I going to be paranoid? Overcautious?"
Judge
Khawley reflected yesterday that when a child's
life is cut short, "the determination to affix blame can unleash
forces that become difficult to control."
He
likened the case to two locomotives hurtling toward one another on the same
track — one representing vengeance and the other justice — until they
collide.
The
Crown was left to sift through the wreckage, including "documents
withheld and tampered with," Judge Khawly
said. "I can say this with truth: There are no winners in this."
Defence
lawyers Marlys Edwardh
and Elizabeth McIntyre cited several examples of the sort of evidence that
sank the prosecution:
•Police at one point said an assessment of Lisa's condition made at a Boston hospital bore no relevance to the case against
the nurses. But when the defence obtained the assessment, it was relevant;
•A doctor who was phoned at home by Ms. Soriano shortly before Lisa died
unexpectedly took responsibility in his testimony for erring in the
morphine dosage he had approved;
•An expert report that could have cleared up allegations that the nurses
had tampered with a "flow sheet" on Lisa's treatment was
suppressed.
•The seemingly damning allegation at the inquest that the nurses had not
read computerized treatment instructions turned out to be a relatively
innocent act.
It
was the third time in two decades that charges against nurses have
collapsed at the preliminary-hearing stage. The others involved nurses
Susan Nelles and Gita Proudman.
Ms. Edwardh and Ms. McIntyre criticized authorities for
persistently scapegoating nurses. "How many
times do we have to do this?" Ms. McIntyre asked. "It's the blame
game. The media pick up on the perception that somebody must be blamed.
"It's
all too easy to blame the nurses," she said. "This is a real
problem for the nursing profession. What has happened as a result of these
cases is that nurses are terrified that when something goes wrong, they are
going to be subjected to these kinda of criminal
proceedings. Things do happen in hospitals. We do have deaths in
hospitals."
Several
of those caught up in the case cited Lisa's mother — Sharon Shore — and her lawyer as a major force behind the criminal charges.
Ms. Edwardh said the two nurses were placed under a
magnifying glass at the inquest, yet doctors escaped with much less scrutiny
and some hospital protocols went unexamined.
She
said the nurses relied on hospital lawyers to represent their interests.
When the inquest proceeding morphed into an exercise in blame-laying, Ms. Edwardh said, the nurses felt defenceless.
"The
inquest was hijacked by private interests," Ms. McIntyre added.
"An inquest is not supposed to be a finding of liability, but this
case was translated into a homicide investigation."
The
lawyers blasted the Toronto Police for laying charges prematurely instead
of conducting an additional investigation, leaving two conscientious nurses
vulnerable to imprisonment and ruined careers.
"In
our view, that was very, very wrong," Ms. Edwardh
said. "When you walk into a hospital, it's not like you are going down
to the tavern. It is a very complex world. An inquest cannot be a
substitute for a criminal investigation."
Said
Ms. McIntyre: "If they had taken 10 steps back and looked at the
totality of the case, it becomes crystal clear that there is nothing close
to criminal liability."
Police
and prosecutors in the case declined to be interviewed yesterday.
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