A nurse and her police officer husband approached me about the botched labour and delivery experience they had at a major hospital. They were in psychological counselling at the time as they each had PTSD after losing their infant within a month after her birth. Their police dept. psychologist gave them my name and suggested that speaking out would help them heal. They also believed it might compel hospital leaders to apologize and would inform the public about patient safety/quality care issues. Canadian laws are very different when it comes to litigation and compensation so the couple were advised by multiple lawyers that under the Family Compensation Act, they would get very little since the loss of a child is not considered a financial burden. This compounded the couple’s hurt. It took me nearly three weeks to get hospital leaders and doctors to agree to interviews. In one of the most shocking interviews I did, I found out that the apologetic medical leader was actually grieving himself after his own medical error nightmare involving his daughter who committed suicide after being discharged from an ER before being seen by a doctor. The package helped a family find some closure and taught health consumers how to be proactive about their care, how and where to complain when things go wrong. It sheds light on the little known Apology Act. It goes a long way to informing and guiding health providers about their moral and ethical responsibilities. Lawyers for my newspaper chopped out alot of info to ensure we didn’t point fingers at specific doctors with their deep pockets for litigation. The package makes it clear that there were miscues on the part of certain obstetricians who refused to talk on the record.
