Horizon review underway after patient dies in Fredericton ER waiting room

A Fredericton man is still reeling after he witnessed a man he describes as a senior in a wheelchair die alone in the waiting room of the Dr. Everett Chalmers Regional Hospital's emergency department early Tuesday morning while waiting for care.

John Staples says the experience was a "stark and sombre realization" that New Brunswick's health-care system is "so sadly broken."

"It was a surreal moment because, I mean, I think I realized that they had just passed away in an ER waiting room," he said. "You're at a place where you're supposed to get care and you wind up passing away while you're waiting for that care."

"You're basically at the front door of health care … You're on the threshold of getting the care you need and you don't get it in time."

Staples, a residential support worker at an Oromocto community residence, says he went to the emergency room with a client who needed emergency care around midnight Monday.

He noticed the patient in question, who was several feet in front of them.

"It was very evident that they were in a lot of discomfort, just the way that they were behaving," he said.

"There was moaning and groaning and just the grimace on the face. I mean, it's just, you know, natural signs of discomfort when somebody is ill."

After at least an hour of waiting, Staples moved his client from sitting along the wall to sitting beside the patient, respecting COVID distancing, so the client could watch the television on the wall.

Staples and his client watched a couple of half-hour TV shows and the patient appeared to fall asleep, he said.

A hospital employee came out to check on people in the ER, which was fairly full, Staples said.

"And when they checked this one individual, very professionally rushed back [into the ER], so as not to cause any alarm, I assume."

Staples looked at the patient and noticed no rise and fall of the man's chest to indicate he was breathing. "And I thought, 'This person is gone.'"

That's when the hospital employee reappeared with three people and they wheeled the patient into the ER, he said.