Unheeded warnings, failure to check blood sugar led to 25-year-old P.E.I. diabetic's death, mother says

Heidi Clarke says all the warning signs should have been evident and well-documented in the days before her 25-year-old daughter Brandi died from diabetic ketoacidosis in March 2023.

That is, in essence, a death caused by a lack of insulin. As the body of someone who doesn't have enough insulin burns off fat to create energy, because it can't convert glucose, a chemical called ketone can build up in the blood and reach a toxic level.

It's a hazard for anyone with Type 1 diabetes, but regular blood sugar monitoring and insulin injections can prevent it.

Brandi Clarke needed extra help to manage her condition, though. As well as being diabetic, she had been diagnosed with psychosis and was unable to look after herself, which is why she was living at a government-funded transitional housing facility in Charlottetown operated by the Canadian Mental Health Association.

Clarke said the staff there were supposed to make sure Brandi's diabetes was being treated. She said that didn't happen.

"No one was monitoring because if they did, they would know it," Clarke told CBC News. "So why wasn't anyone helping her with that? They knew she couldn't take care of it."

Since Brandi's death, her mother has been searching for the answer to that question.

"No one will answer me."

Brandi had been living with her mother until she moved into a Summerside transitional housing complex run by CMHA in May of 2021. Clarke said her daughter was 23 at the time, and needed more supervision than a single working parent could provide.

"I couldn't leave her at home. I was scared she was going to burn the house down. She would leave things on the stove."

A letter from their family doctor from 2020 says Brandi suffers from Type 1 diabetes and psychosis, and "requires daily cueing and reminders to check her blood sugars/carb count and direct supervision for dosing and administration of insulin (which she requires to live but errors in administration could be life-threatening)."

The letter, which Clarke said is on file with CMHA, also said Brandi required reminders about daily hygiene tasks and supervision for things like meal preparation.

Clarke said Brandi was moved to another CMHA transitional housing facility on St. Peter's Road in Charlottetown in September 2022 because that unit had supervision around the clock, whereas the Summerside home had no one on duty on evenings and weekends.

Clarke said the first question she asked when attending her daughter's intake session in Charlottetown was whether staff there were trained to support a person with diabetes. She wanted to make sure they had received training similar to what Clarke herself had received from Diabetes Canada.