Family demands answers after Fredericton ER sends man home hours after he broke neck

John Barnet received six hours of hospital care for a broken neck and sternum before being told he had to leave.

Now his family is demanding answers as to why the 41-year-old man was discharged from the Dr. Everett Chalmers Regional Hospital in Fredericton hours after crashing his motorcycle, and with little in the way of followup care for injuries that could have long-term effects.

"It's unacceptable," Taylor Grandy, his wife, said in an interview Friday.

"He should still be in the hospital. He really should be, you know, at least for a week or more."

Barnet recently purchased a motorcycle and went out for a ride with a friend on Tuesday afternoon, Grandy said.

Shortly after crossing the Princess Margaret Bridge on Route 8, Grandy said, her husband hit some gravel, lost control of his bike and hit the highway median.

Paramedics took him to the Dr. Everett Chalmers Regional Hospital around 8 p.m., where he was treated for a broken C7 vertebra in his neck, a broken sternum, a broken nose, a split tongue and broken teeth.

Grandy said she rushed to the hospital fearing the worst.

When she got there, a nurse warned her of the severity of Barnet's injuries before wheeling him back into the emergency room on a stretcher following his CT scan.

"He was in so much pain. So much pain. He said, 'Taylor, I think my back's broken,' and it was just a mess."

Grandy said once the results of the CT scan confirmed the broken vertebra in his neck, staff started giving her instructions for maintaining the brace her husband had around his neck.

Then without explanation, they informed the couple Barnet would be discharged from the hospital later that evening.

"They wanted to sit him up in the bed … to kind of get him up moving, and they were like, 'You can go home tonight'.

"And even John couldn't believe it."