Flesh-eating infection claims N.W.T. man's leg after he was removed from hospital
CBC
According to his family, James Kochon went to the Stanton Territorial Hospital emergency room in Yellowknife on Tuesday last week complaining about leg pain.
Though it's unclear what his diagnosis was at the time, he was told he could go home.
He refused to leave.
A photograph circulating online shows the 47-year-old lying in the Stanton emergency room in the fetal position.
CBC attempted to reach the person who took the photo but did not receive a response.
Yellowknife RCMP told CBC News they responded last Tuesday to a call about a man refusing to leave the hospital and being verbally aggressive with staff. Spokesperson Matt Halstead said the man was removed by security, and police later found him near the hospital and checked in with him.
Kochon's sister Trudy — who works as a nurse in Colville Lake, N.W.T., — said he remained in severe pain for four days, and reluctantly decided to return to the hospital where he received the diagnosis.
Family members say doctors have told them he had a flesh-eating bacterial infection, and would need to have his leg amputated.
"I was devastated," she said, "We are all human, that's how they treat native people?"
She said to her, it's another example of Indigenous people facing sub-standard health care.
CBC News reached out to N.W.T. Health and Social Services but was told it couldn't comment on specific patient cases and that Kochon's family could file a complaint if they wished.
Kochon's brother Charles said things could have been much worse had he not returned to the hospital.
"He told me he didn't want to go back there," he said, "He was calling me and my sisters looking for painkillers because his leg was so bad."
Family members say it's not clear how he was treated in the emergency room on his first visit, but they don't believe he had an X-ray.
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