'I thought, they're gone': Patient dies while waiting in Fredericton ER

Horizon Health Network confirmed Wednesday afternoon that a patient died while at Fredericton's Dr. Everett Chalmers Regional Hospital emergency department waiting room on Tuesday.

Dr. John Dornan, CEO, said the individual’s death was “unexpected.”

“Horizon thoroughly reviews any unexpected deaths that occur in our facilities to determine what took place and whether further action is required,” he said in a statement. “As it relates to this incident, we immediately started the review process.”

He extended his sympathies to the individual’s family.

Dornan’s statement comes after a social post circulated Wednesday, written by John Staples.

In an interview with CTV Atlantic, Staples, who works as a residential support worker, said he was waiting in the ER with a resident he works with around midnight Tuesday.

“The individual in question was clearly in discomfort. There was moaning and groaning and sighs…they were in some kind of pain,” he said.

Staples says he was waiting alongside his resident in the room for several hours, watching TV.

“An ER attendant came out, and checked people, and checked this individual. I’ve done this line of work for 20 years, so, when the ER attendant rushed back, very professionally, as not to raise any alarms, I did look at the individual,” he said. “I noticed there was no signs of breathing. No rise or fall of the chest or abdomen. I thought, ‘they’re gone.’”

He said moments later, three health-care workers came out and wheeled the individual out of the waiting area, calling a Code Blue “almost immediately.”

Staples says he’s thinking about the individual, their family, and the staff members at the ER.

He feels it’s the result of a problematic system, that needs to be fixed.

“We have free health care but it’s coming at the cost of lives,” he said. “Why do we have the wait times? Why do we have the lack of medical professionals that we need?”

His post, describing what he saw, has been shared thousands of times on social media. Staples says the person could have been anyone’s loved one, including his own.

“This has been an ongoing situation in New Brunswick for years,” he said.