Family blames Bonavista ER closure for man's death in ambulance

Shelley Gosselin says the night before her father, Charles Marsh, died, he was worried.

On Feb. 19, the 78-year-old man experienced an asthma attack, and his medication wasn't working. Gosselin said her father drove himself to the Bonavista emergency room for oxygen — but it wasn't open.

"The parking lot was empty, the doors were locked, and there was a sign saying closed," she said Tuesday.

The Bonavista emergency room closed for days at a time in February, opening only when Eastern Health could secure enough staff for the facility. According to a press release from Eastern Health, the emergency room was shut down from Feb. 17-21.

Gosselin, who lives in Ottawa, got a phone call from her father after he returned home.

"He said, 'My dear, somebody is going to die over this.' Never an inkling that he would be the one," she said.

Gosselin said her father hoped the asthma attack would end, but it didn't. The next morning he decided to call an ambulance.

"The ambulance came after approximately 25 minutes or so, and they took him. He walked from his door onto the ambulance and approximately an hour later he passed away in the ambulance en route to Clarenville," she said.

Gosselin said she hasn't gotten clear answers about how her father died but she believes "100 per cent" if the Bonavista emergency room had been open, things would have turned out differently.

"I really do believe that his death was needless, that he would still be here with us because he would have gotten the oxygen and the medication that he needed," she said.

CBC News has asked Eastern Health for comment.

Gosselin, who lives in Ottawa travelled back to Bonavista after her father died. She said she sees signs of her father, a carpenter, throughout her hometown.

"He was well known to the whole area of Bonavista for his carpentry skills. People were always calling him up to ask advice on things, and he's been involved in so many projects in the infrastructure of Bonavista," she said. 

She called the emergency room closures "unfathomable" — and said her family plans to speak out.