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Attention News Editors:

Shore Family Saddened by Dismissal of Criminal Charges

    TORONTO, May 16 /CNW/ - Bill and Sharon Shore are saddened to learn that
criminal charges against Ruth Doerksen and Anagaile Soriano arising from the
death of their 10-year-old daughter Lisa at the Hospital for Sick Children in
October 1998 have been dismissed.

    Doerksen, Soriano and their supporters claim they have been vindicated.
Nothing can be further from the truth! There are many reasons that the Crown
may be unable to present sufficient evidence to obtain a criminal conviction,
but that does not mean that the parties did not commit the acts which gave
rise to the criminal charges. One possible reason for the Crown's decision to
abandon the prosecution might be where a critical nursing expert decides at
the last minute not to testify when she had previously agreed to do so.

    Prior to the criminal proceedings, the College of Nurses of Ontario
charged Doerksen and Soriano with multiple counts of professional misconduct,
but agreed to postpone the disciplinary hearings while criminal charges were
pending. Now that the College is free to resume its prosecution, we are
confident that the two charged nurses will be held fully accountable for their
actions when compelled to explain them to a professional nursing tribunal.

    Bill and I wish to state that a coroner's jury reached its finding of
homicide in February 2000 after listening to days of sworn testimony by the
two nurses as well as by many other medical experts. The family will make
Lisa's nursing records available on May 17th at www.lisashore.com, so that
members of the public may review them and make an informed decision as to
whether they would trust nurses Doerksen and Soriano to care for their
children.

    We expect that the Hospital for Sick Children will adhere to the written
promise it made to us after the coroner's jury found Lisa's death to be a
homicide. The promise was that these two nurses would remain on leave and not
work at the hospital until after the College of Nurses' disciplinary hearings
are over.

    We hope that the hospital can be trusted to keep its promise, and that it
will not do anything that might potentially jeopardize the safety of its
patients.


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For further information: Sharon Shore, (416) 801-1391