Man left in snow outside Prince Albert hospital joins call for inquiry into security

Brydon Lafaver says security staff at Victoria Hospital in Prince Albert threw him into a wheelchair after he received treatment, wheeled him outside and left him in the snow injured, disoriented and with nowhere to go.

On Monday, Lafaver sat with families and First Nations leaders in Saskatoon as the health ombudsperson's office created by First Nations said the provincial government's recently announced independent review into hospital security practices doesn’t go far enough.

Video footage of the December incident, previously reported by CBC News, showed three hospital security officers pushing Lafaver outside the hospital's doors. The footage later shows him lying in a snowbank, alone.

“I was very violently escorted out of the hospital by security and basically thrown in the snow,” Lafaver said in an interview with CBC News on Monday. 

“It was like a nightmare,” he said. “It just really hurt and I’m paranoid to even go back to the hospital or be treated.” 

The Saskatchewan Health Authority later banned the guards involved and launched an investigation.

“I was highly intoxicated, but I wasn't being physically violent, or verbally, and had a broken foot too, and just nowhere to go,” Lafaver said.

In a statement, the SHA said it has completed its review of the incident and determined the actions of the contracted security officers involved did not meet its standards or align with its values.

The First Nations Health Ombudsperson's Office (FNHOO) said Lafaver’s case is one of more than 20 serious complaints it's currently handling involving SHA protective services staff and First Nations patients.

“You should not go to the hospital and come out worse — or come out injured, traumatized, or left in the cold,” First Nations Health Ombudsperson Dianne Lafond said at a news conference in Saskatoon.  

Since opening in July 2023, the FNHOO says it has received more than 547 complaints from First Nations people navigating Saskatchewan’s health-care system, many of which involve alleged mistreatment, racism or abuse of power.

Lafond said those cases point to a “clear and troubling pattern.”

Napoleon Derange, 59, also spoke with media on Monday. He said he’s spent months in hospital and is relearning how to walk after what he called a violent encounter with hospital security.

Now in a wheelchair, he said he’s living with pain and fears he may never return to the work and activities he once loved, like hunting, fishing and trapping.