Family of cancer patient who spent final hours alone in Winnipeg ER gets apology, continues to push for change

It’s been three months since a Winnipeg cancer patient spent most of his final hours alone in an ER bed and his family is still fighting for change.

It’s been three months since a Winnipeg cancer patient spent most of his final hours alone in an ER bed and his family is still fighting for change.

Alfred Jobse, 70, died in an ambulance after his wife was initially denied access to the hospital.

While the current policy allows access to essential care partners, the family feels it needs to be better communicated to staff so that patients don’t end up dying alone.

“Nobody should have to navigate that alone and my dad shouldn’t have had to,” said Alicia Thwaites, Alfred’s daughter. “Shared Health’s apology to us proves that he should’ve had someone with him.”

The family said Shared Health apologized because Jobse, who had been living with esophageal cancer, spent 12 of his last 18 hours alone in the emergency department at Health Sciences Centre (HSC) due to COVID-19 visitor restrictions. This despite his rapidly deteriorating condition which required important decisions to be made about his medical care.

“I met all the criteria,” said Theresa Jobse, Alfred’s wife of 44 years. “He could not make these decisions himself and yet I wasn’t allowed in.”

Theresa, who was fully vaccinated, had to wait around 13 hours before being granted access to the hospital as his essential care partner. By the time his daughters were allowed in the family had less than an hour with Alfred before he started slipping out of consciousness.