Mom wants inquest after son turned away from Brandon hospital for addiction help

A Manitoba mother is pleading with the province's chief medical examiner to hold an inquest into her son's death, arguing the systems that failed him need to be exposed.

Ryan Eamer, 46, died in February 2021, the day after he went to the Brandon emergency department in an unsuccessful attempt to access detox services.

His mother, Brenda Eamer, has called for an inquest, but Dr. John Younes, the chief medical examiner, called her last week to say he had decided against one.

"I was shocked," she told CBC News. "We need to have some measures put in place now that will address all the failings that happened to Ryan."

The night she and Ryan went to the Brandon hospital, a nurse initially said he was too intoxicated to be admitted to a detox bed, Brenda says. They were told to go home and come back when he was sober.

However, she insisted her son should be seen by a doctor that day, and left the hospital after checking him in. At some point while waiting, he fell. Police were called to take him into custody, and he was never assessed by a doctor, two reviews into his death found.

He spent over four hours in police custody before he was returned to the hospital. His mother then took him home, where she found him dead the next day.

Last week, following his phone call, Brenda got a letter from Younes, further outlining his reasons for deciding against an inquest.

He pointed to the recently announced inquest into the death of Lee Earnshaw, a 42-year-old Winnipeg man who died in 2021 of a drug overdose after making repeated attempts to get help through a provincial rapid access to addictions medicine (RAAM) clinic.

Younes wrote that both men had similar "challenges with the system" and it would be "redundant" to call an inquest into Eamer's death, despite documented "shortcomings" in his care at hospital.

Younes told Brenda he will monitor the changes that the Prairie Mountain Health authority promised to make in the wake of her son's death — and said he will take action if they don't happen in the next six months. 

But Brenda Eamer says an inquest would highlight the need for more addictions services, like a sobering centre, and show the gaps in his care. 

"The circumstances under which Ryan died were much different from Lee Earnshaw," she said.

"I'm asking for an inquest so that … [Younes] can address the discriminatory practices and behaviour of the staff at the hospital that day."