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> News | | Jan. 10, 2002. 02:36 PM | |
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| Nurses' negligence trial faces long delay | | Two Sick Kids' employees charged in death of Lisa Shore, 10 | From Canadian Press
|  | | | Lisa Shore, 10, died of complications due to a broken leg. | Frustrated nurses left a downtown courtroom today after learning that a possible trial against two colleagues charged in the death of a 10-year-old girl may be delayed until the fall. "All nurses will be frustrated by what we heard," Doris Grinspun, executive director of the Registered Nurses Association of Ontario, said after Crown attorney Hank Goody suggested the trial would not begin before September. "This is putting the life of people on hold and it creates more tension and stress," she said referring to the nurses and the girl's family. About 30 nurses crowded the courtroom in support of Ruth Doerksen, 41, and Anagaile Soriano, 25. But nurses across the country are closely watching this case, Grinspun added. Nurses who fear that understaffing and working conditions are undermining the level of care they can deliver will now have to worry that they'll be criminally charged if something goes wrong on their shifts, nursing unions have complained. The two women were charged last November with criminal negligence. The charges stem from the 1998 death of Lisa Shore. She died of respiratory and heart failure about six hours after being admitted to the Hospital for Sick Children — one of the country's most respected children's hospitals — for complications from a leg she had broken six months earlier. Defence attorneys complained today that the Crown has furnished transcripts but no exhibits that played a significant role in a coroner's inquest last year, which returned a verdict of homicide. Goody said he hopes to pass along evidence to the defence after he sifts through the abundance of information. The timing of this shouldn't affect the eventual trial date, he added. Justice of the peace Leslie Brown urged the prosecution to move as quickly as possible. The women's lawyers said the information is crucial to determine how the case will proceed and whether a preliminary hearing will be required. The nurses remain on paid leave until the case is completed. Janet Rush, chief nursing officer at the hospital, said she had hoped for a very early court date. "It just leaves everybody hanging in the balance." Doerksen and Soriano will be back in court on Feb. 20.
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