Sharon Shore criticized a one-month
suspension given two nurses who were on duty the
night her daughter, 10,
died.
Nurses punished but Mom vows to fight
on Became lawyer after child died Describes inquiry as
a 'whitewash'
HAROLD
LEVY STAFF REPORTER
One battle is over for Sharon Shore, but others remain
to be fought.
Shore, the mother of a 10-year-old girl who was found
dead in her bed at the Hospital for Sick Children in 1998,
acknowledged to reporters yesterday her legal battle to bring
nurses Ruth Doerksen and Anagaile Soriano to account was over
after the College of Nurses of Ontario imposed a one-month
suspension for professional misconduct.
But she said the experience so moved her that she
applied to Osgoode Hall Law School at York University in 2001,
graduated this year and now is articling for a Toronto law
firm.
"I decided I wanted to be an intimate part of (the
legal) system because that was the only way that I could do
whatever I could for other people that are not able to deal
with the combined resources of large institutions," she
explained.
Shore had to fight for an inquest into her daughter
Lisa's death and pressed for criminal charges to be laid
against Doerksen and Soriano after the coroner's jury returned
a homicide verdict. The verdict, in February 2000, indicated
the jury believed Lisa's death was a result of human error,
and not an accident as the hospital had argued.
The verdict prompted a criminal investigation. Charges
of criminal negligence causing death were laid against both
nurses in October 2001 but withdrawn in May 2003 after
prosecutors said there was no reasonable prospect of
conviction.
Shore, a certified general accountant who was doing tax
consulting work before Lisa died, filed a complaint against
the nurses with the college, the nursing profession's
self-governing body, in March 2000.
In an agreed statement of facts, lawyers for the
college and the two nurses said Doerksen and Soriano were not
guilty of any acts of "omission or commission" that caused
Lisa's death.
But the two nurses acknowledged they failed to
adequately assess, monitor or provide adequate nursing care to
Lisa and failed to adequately document her condition and care.
The nurses were suspended by the hospital after the coroner
jury's verdict from March 2000, to November 2003, before being
allowed to return to work under close supervision.
The nurses will not have to serve the one-month
suspension because the disciplinary panel found more time off
work was not warranted. They were also reprimanded and the
suspension will be recorded in the college's register.
Shore alleged key information about Lisa's care was
omitted from the agreed statement of facts and called the
entire process a "whitewash."
She vowed to continue her efforts to tell the public
her view of what happened at the hospital the night of Oct.
22, 1998. "There is nothing else after this except for me to
stand up and speak the truth in as many places and as loudly
as I can, and I intend to do that."
College prosecutor Linda Rothstein told the panel Shore
had not been allowed to participate in the hearing on the
advice of an independent lawyer. She added Shore had declined
to file a victim impact statement when told limits could be
placed on it by the college.
Rothstein defended the agreement with the nurses'
lawyers, saying Doerksen and Soriano had acknowledged their
misconduct, shown remorse, had not intentionally harmed Lisa,
had not been the subject of any other complaints and had
voluntarily taken courses to improve themselves.
Outside the hearing, Shore distributed a seven-page
statement she said she would have given had she been allowed
to address the disciplinary panel.
"The college is self-regulating, which means it is in
charge of policing its own," she said in the statement. "To
me, this incomplete and inaccurate statement of facts and
joint submission on penalty seems more like the college is
protecting its own."
Lawyer Marlys Edwardh, who represents Doerksen, said
both nurses feel bad that they have not been able to apologize
to the Shore family.
"Mrs. Shore is very angry still," Edwardh said after
the hearing. "To watch her, even during the course of this
submission, she rejects what the college has done, she rejects
what the nurses have done in remediation and it is quite clear
that she rejects even the (college's) description of what
happened as non-intentional.
"You can't give a meaningful apology to someone who you
know will only reject it," Edwardh continued. "But do both Ms.
Doerksen and Miss Soriano at the very core of their being feel
the tragic loss of Lisa — and would they love to say that to
the Shores if they would hear it?
"Yes. But can they hear it? No."
Edwardh said she was "very pleased with the penalty
result. It was the right one. It focused on protection of the
public. I think the public should be satisfied that both
nurses have gone through remediation and are excellent,
competent nurses."
Margaret Keatings, vice president of professional
practice at the Hospital for Sick Children, told reporters
yesterday that while the circumstances surrounding Lisa
Shore's death were "incredibly tragic," the two nurses had
gone through extensive re-education and monitoring.
"I would have to say that right now I think that they
are two of the safest nurses we have working at the Hospital
for Sick Children," Keatings said.
Lisa died after being admitted the previous night with
recurrent pain in her leg, a rare condition previously
diagnosed as reflexive sympathetic dystrophy, triggered by a
broken leg.
The coroner's jury heard testimony from Dr. Markus
Schilly that he prescribed morphine on a self-controlled pump
for Lisa's pain, and left specific orders for nurses to
monitor her for the potential life-threatening dangers of
morphine.
The jurors heard conflicting evidence about the use of
a corometric monitor, which sounds alarms when breathing and
heart rate fail.
Doerksen, who was primarily responsible for Lisa's
care, testified she had the child hooked up to the device, but
later disconnected the respiration unit after it sounded
repeated false alarms.
Shore, who spent the night in her daughter's room,
testified that she neither saw such a machine, nor heard the
alarms.
The jury made 35 recommendations, including changes to
the hospital's computerized information system that would
cause a warning to be sounded where a nurse failed to access a
doctor's computerized orders.
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