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Thestar.com
> GTA | | Oct. 26, 2001. 02:00 AM | | | Printer friendly version |
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| Nurses warn charge will hurt profession | | Two from Sick Kids charged with negligence | Harold Levy And Vanessa Lu
STAFF REPORTERS | | Two nurses at the Hospital for Sick Children surrendered yesterday morning to homicide detectives on a joint charge of criminal negligence causing the 1998 death of 10-year-old Lisa Shore.Nursing organization representatives are warning that the charge will have a profound negative effect on the profession."I think nurses everywhere will be outraged that a criminal charge has been laid against these nurses," said Lesley Bell, chief executive officer of the Ontario Nurses' Association. "I'm not sure the added stress of being charged criminally for doing the best job you can, in a horrific situation, is fair or just."Lisa Shore was found dead in her hospital bed on Oct. 22, 1998, less than 12 hours after she arrived at the emergency department with leg pain caused by a non-life-threatening condition. An inquest jury was told her nurses failed to monitor her for the possible deadly effects of morphine.Police spokesperson Deb Abbott said in an interview that Ruth Doerksen, 41, and Anagaile Soriano, 25, surrendered at an unspecified police station sometime between 10 a.m. and noon yesterday.Bell maintains that the case should not be dealt with in criminal court. She said it should be up to the nurses' regulating body to determine whether to suspend or revoke nurses' licences to practise."I'm not sure scapegoating these two nurses when the (College of Nurses of Ontario) is the appropriate place to deal with their practice is the right thing to do,'' she said. "It will have a demoralizing effect on morale within the nursing profession, which is already suffering."Yes, people do make mistakes. But let's look at the system reasons for the `why' people make mistakes,'' she said. "And if it was the individual's fault, then let the college deal with that."Doris Grinspun, executive director of the Registered Nurses Association of Ontario, said the criminal charge causes "an unsettling feeling" for nurses across Canada."It's important that the public knows that nurses are professionals and they will continue to deliver safe and quality care for their patients. Nurses go every single day to work intending and committed to give high quality care," Grinspun said.She added that this case should be examined in the context of system-wide issues in health care. "Nurses work in environments that sometimes are great, sometimes are difficult. They require supports in the system in order to use the knowledge that they have and the commitment to care that they have in the hearts."According to police, Doerksen and Soriano were placed under arrest and read their Charter rights before being released on their promise to appear at the College Park court complex on Nov. 22. They will be photographed and fingerprinted "at a future date."Doerksen and Soriano have been on paid leave from the hospital since the inquest into Lisa's death began in November, 1999. The police investigation was launched in February, 2000, shortly after a coroner's jury found that Lisa's death was a "homicide," a neutral term meaning the killing of one person by another.At a press conference moments after the verdict by the coroner's jury, Shore family lawyer Frank Gomberg called for a police probe of the hospital in connection with possible criminal offences. Within 24 hours of the verdict, Crown Attorney Paul Culver said that homicide investigators had been asked to look into the case.In a statement issued yesterday, the force says that the joint charge was laid as a result of homicide detectives reviewing the inquest findings.Deputy Chief Coroner Dr. Jim Cairns called the criminal charge against the two nurses "a very unique situation." Prof. Alan Young, of Osgoode Hall Law School, said yesterday it is common for the police to lay joint charges "where there is any suggestion that both accused may have been operating in conjunction," in order to avoid inconsistent verdicts that might result if the accused persons were charged separately. "Charging people separately is often a very abusive move for the state to make because they can then manipulate the accused so that one can be compelled to testify against the other," Young observed.Young said the trial of two nurses at one of the world's most prestigious child-care institutions at a time when Ontario's medical system is under enormous scrutiny is bound to become heavily politicized if the defence is centred around systemic failures in health care."If that happens, the defence evolves around attributing the tragedy to failures in the health-care system as opposed to the conduct of the accused," he said.Young dismissed suggestions that prosecuting nurses in the criminal courts will have some chilling impact on how they conduct their business in the future, because "that's really the same argument used for saying we shouldn't prosecute police officers for illegalities.""But if, when all is said and done, we find out that the prosecutors really don't have a reasonable prospect of conviction ... then in fact what they've done is scapegoat some nurses to hide the defects in health care," he noted. "But if the Crown does have a reasonable prospect of conviction, the political context must not deter them from prosecuting these two individuals."Hospital officials said they were saddened by the news that the criminal charge was filed against the nurses."This is a highly unusual situation," said Sick Kids spokesperson Helen Simeon. "We'll just have to wait and see what happens."Simeon added that the hospital does not believe the two nurses should have been criminally charged. "We don't believe that these individuals were solely responsible for what happened."While the hospital has acknowledged publicly that there were failures in the care that Lisa Shore received, it has now focused on creating better safeguards to prevent system errors, Simeon said.On Wednesday, administrators held a meeting with the hospital's nursing staff to convey their support."We encourage that near-misses and errors be reported and tell them there won't be punitive measures taken against them. They feel supported," Simeon said, adding numerous changes in procedures have been implemented since the coroner's inquest."We recognize that they treat very, very sick children and that they do a great job. And it's appreciated."This is not the first case of a nurse facing criminal charges involving a patient's care.Gita Proudman was charged in the case involving the death of 2-day-old Mustafa Dehzad at Humber River Regional Hospital in June, 1998. The crown later dropped the case when it decided it did not have enough evidence for a second-degree murder conviction. Sieglinde Omstead, who worked at the Leamington District Memorial Hospital, was acquitted in 1999 of negligence after accidentally injecting patient Jeffrey Brown with potassium chloride. Brown, who died instantly in July, 1996, was supposed to be given a diuretic drug called Laxin.Probably the best known case of a nurse criminally charged is that of Susan Nelles. She was arrested in 1981 and charged with first-degree murder in the death of an infant at Sick Kids, following several suspicious deaths there. The charge was thrown out after a preliminary hearing.
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