'The look on her face really worried me': Guidance counsellor testifies in Lexi Daken inquest

Warning: This article contains references to suicide.

In day two of the coroner’s inquest into the death of Lexi Daken, the jury heard from the guidance counsellor who took the New Brunswick teenager to the emergency room the evening she tried to get help.

Daken was 16-years-old when she took her own life on Feb. 24, 2021.

But, six days before, she sought help from the Dr. Everett Chalmers Hospital in Fredericton, where she waited for more than eight hours with her guidance counsellor to see a psychiatrist, but never saw one.

Tuesday’s testimony began with Shelley Hanson, the counsellor who accompanied Daken to the hospital.

She said her first interaction with the teen was sparked by Daken’s older sister, Piper, who Daken identified as her best friend.

The two had their first session on Dec. 2, 2020.

“She really did open up, really on that first day, about things that were traumatic to her,” she said.

She says Daken was a really good student, intelligent, but was worried about how much time she had missed because of her previous attempt to take her own life in November.

“She told me she thinks about dying every hour of every day, which was very hard for me to hear… that was a big red flag for me,” she said.

She said Daken shared that nights were the worst for her suicidal thoughts.

Hanson met with school officials and they agreed to prorate Daken’s marks so the teen was not penalized for missed time, identifying her marks were in the high 90s and 100s.

The counsellor said Daken’s disordered eating was discussed at length during one session in January. She said the relationship continued to build, where Daken felt she could text her, or drop by her office at any time.

On Feb. 5, Hanson told the inquest, Daken dropped by again. She said the teen seemed worse and that she wasn’t sleeping well. The two spoke about how to focus on her goals – Daken wanted to be a neurologist – and tried to come up with ways to navigate her negative thoughts.

The morning of Feb. 18, Daken stopped by her office again, saying she had spiralled, that she had only slept three hours in four days and couldn’t stop the “constant thoughts.”

Daken revealed she had a plan to end her life.

Hanson recalled that she said to the teen, “it sounds like it isn’t safe for you to go home, are you safe to go home?”

Daken answered she wasn’t sure.

Hanson said that was about the end of her professional ability, and asked if she thought it would be a good idea to go to the hospital.

At first, Daken wasn’t sure, she said she was scared of the psychiatric unit in the hospital. But the counsellor talked her through those thoughts and Daken agreed to go. She got confirmation from their vice principal and from Chris, Lexi’s father.

Around 12:30 p.m., the two arrived at the Chalmers hospital.

She said she told the triage nurse that Daken appeared happy and bubbly, but she was actually seriously depressed.

“I really felt she needed to see a psychiatrist,” Hanson said.

She said the two waited in the waiting room for about seven hours.

During that wait, Daken revealed she also was experiencing hallucinations, and was hearing and seeing things.

Chris Daken arrived at the hospital, but because of COVID-19 protocols, only one person could stay, and they agreed it was better if Hanson remained with Daken.

At 7:30 or 8 p.m., the two were taken into a room.

The counsellor told the inquest she highlighted three things to the doctor once in the room: Daken’s suicidal thoughts, disordered eating and hallucinations.

The physician took Daken’s blood work and, shortly after, returned to tell her it was normal.

Hanson then recalls the physician turning to Daken.

“If you can’t contract with me that you can keep yourself safe then you will force me to call-in a psychiatrist,” Hanson recalls the doctor saying to Daken.

“I could see this look on her face. Lexi was a kid who followed all the rules and was a people pleaser… I remember feeling really shocked at that language, just the use of the word ‘forced,’” she said. “The look on her face really worried me… I said again to the doctor, ‘I think she really needs to see a psychiatrist.’”

Hanson recalled the physician said that Daken can see a psychiatrist as an outpatient.

At that point, Hanson said Daken was looking back and forth between her and the doctor, but eventually Daken agreed to accept a referral.

“I said, ‘Are you sure?’ Again, because she didn’t look right, the look on her face, she didn’t look right,” Hanson said.

Daken nodded.

She said the doctor wrote out the number for the mental health crisis service and handed it to Daken.

The doctor said that she would set up the consult and they were free to leave.

Hanson said they left between 9 and 10 p.m.

They had a conversation in the parking lot, where Hanson says she asked Daken again, “are you sure, are you sure you don’t want to go back in?”

“I was really worried,” she shared.

But Daken ended up going home that evening with her father.

Hanson said Piper called her the following Wednesday morning, revealing that Lexi had tried to take her own life. She said she went to the family home to be with Daken’s siblings.

Janet Matheson took the stand next, a 46-year nursing veteran, who retired last year.

Matheson was at the hospital on Feb. 18 and triaged Daken.

“She told me, I don’t recall her exact words, but that she wanted to kill herself,” she said.

Matheson triaged Daken as a level three, feeling the teen wasn’t in immediate danger, and would be safe to go into the waiting room.

“I didn’t feel she would wait hours,” she said.

Matheson also said she knew the counsellor Daken was with, and that she was “one of the best counsellors I know.”

Matheson said changes had already begun within the emergency department prior to Daken’s death, to better treat those in mental distress.

“After Lexi, yes, we did make some changes and I applauded them,” Matheson said.

Matheson identified a separate waiting room for those in mental distress as one change.

E.R. DOCTOR, DAKEN’S FATHER TESTIFY

Dr. Rebecca McGinn was the emergency room doctor the day Daken sought help at the Chalmer’s ER. She testified that during the COVID-19 pandemic, she was part of what’s known as the ‘bridging program,’ where family physicians could attend the emergency department between 2-10 p.m.

She told the inquest that the waiting room was always overflowing with people during that time.

McGinn said before she entered the room where Daken and her guidance counsellor were moved to, she reviewed the teen’s chart, including her vital signs – which were stable.

When she entered the room, she said she was constantly doing an assessment, including how Daken appeared, her behaviour, body movement, how she was communicating, among other things.

She recalled that Daken was “sitting very calmly, very pleasant looking, did not look in distress.”

The physician said the teen was shy at first and a little reluctant to speak. Guidance counsellor Shelley Hanson spoke up and said she was worried about Daken’s well-being, explaining the 16-year-old’s symptoms, including hallucinations and suicidal ideation.

McGinn recalled that after about 15-to-20 minutes, Daken identified that she was still feeling unsafe.

She ordered bloodwork around 7:30 p.m., she told the inquest, for two reasons: to ensure there wasn’t an infection they were missing, but also to spend more time with the teen.

Bloodwork would take about an hour to get back. During that time, McGinn had to attend to other patients.

At 9 p.m., she returned to Daken’s room where she said the teen was still “very pleasant…her mental status examination to me was very stable.”

She said the bloodwork was normal, and, for a second time, asked if Daken could “contract her safety,” and go home with a plan for urgent outpatient psychiatry support, or if she felt she needed to call-in a psychiatrist that evening.

“I was comfortable with either one of the options that I had presented to Lexi. If she had still said she was unsafe to go home, I would have contacted psychiatry,” said McGinn.

She said if she consulted psychiatry that night, it would have been a one or two hour wait, but that she was “happy to do that.”

“She had excellent insight into her depression…she was perfectly able to contribute to her own care,” Dr. McGinn recalled.

The physician explained she doesn’t admit patients to the psychiatric unit, but had they chosen to consult psychiatry that night, that psychiatrist would have decided if she would be admitted or not.

When Daken said she believed she would be safe at home, McGinn said she made an urgent request for outpatient follow-up and gave Daken the number of a mobile mental health crisis line.

Daken’s father, Chris, took the stand after McGinn.

He described his middle child as having two different personalities before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Before COVID, Lexi was a very outgoing kid, she loved family outings, sports and friends…she was kind of a perfectionist when it came to her schooling,” he said. “Lexi was the type of kid that she wanted to get 100 at everything.”

But during the pandemic, he said he noticed Daken seemed to lose sleep, lost some friendships, and was isolated much more.

“She didn’t have her friends, she didn’t have her sports…it took a lot away from her,” he said. “I think most parents would say that they’ve seen a change in their children since COVID.”

He said she didn’t reveal to him that she was struggling, prior to her first attempt to take her own life.

“I ask myself that 100 times…did I think it was as bad as it was? No,” he told the inquest. “She wasn’t the kid that I ever thought that that would happen to.”

He said after that first attempt, he could tell she felt really bad about it, somewhat embarrassed.

Chris Daken was asked about the last day of his daughter’s life. He described a good day, where the two went to Saint John together to pick up something, went to McDonald’s and visited family.

They made plans to take future trips together.

He said they returned home and the teen told her father, “I love you, Dad,” and they all went to bed.

Daken described being awoken by a thump at around 2:30-3 a.m. the next morning. He found his daughter lying on the floor in the hallway. He said he wasn’t going to wait for an ambulance, and took her to the Chalmer’s hospital himself.

Describing it as a blur, he said physicians worked on the teen for several hours.

“We sat in that waiting room what seemed like hours…I remember the doctor came in and said that she probably wasn’t going to make it,” he recalled.

A coroner’s inquest does not assign blame, but through public testimony, it tries to understand the circumstances surrounding a death. Recommendations by the five-person jury are expected at the end of this week. 

---

If you or someone you know is in crisis, here are some resources that are available in Canada.

Canada Suicide Prevention Helpline (1-833-456-4566)

Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (1 800 463-2338)

Crisis Services Canada (1-833-456-4566 or text 45645)

Kids Help Phone [phone])

If you need immediate assistance call 911 or go to the nearest hospital.