Nurses face final hearing

Girl, 10, died at Sick Kids in 1998

Nearly seven years after the death of 10-year-old Lisa Shore, two nurses from the Hospital for Sick Children will face a disciplinary hearing today.

Ruth Doerksen and Anagaile Soriano -- both before the College of Nurses of Ontario (CNO) -- allegedly failed to adequately monitor the Thornhill girl the night she died and failed to follow doctor's orders. They also face allegations of falsifying health records.

Today's hearing -- where an agreed statement of facts is expected to be read -- is the final hurdle in a long, emotional case that has seen criminal charges filed and later dropped against the two nurses as well as a coroner's inquest ending in a bombshell verdict of homicide. A verdict at a coroner's inquest is a finding of fact, not legal responsibility.

The hospital settled a civil suit with the family in 1999 and apologized during the 2000 inquest.

"There's nothing left," said Lisa's mother, Sharon Shore, who has long pushed for answers in her daughter's death. "If I could go any further I would."

Lisa died Oct. 22, 1998, at Sick Kids where she was being treated for severe pain from a broken leg. She died six hours later from respiratory and heart failure.

Sharon Shore, who recently graduated from Osgoode law school, has written a 400-page book about her daughter's case, called No Moral Conscience. It was particularly difficult to write about Lisa, she said.

"This was my catharsis," she said. "This is the only way I can get the truth out. I needed to do this."