Lexi Daken was made to feel like a burden at Fredericton ER, father testifies

WARNING: This story contains details about suicide.

Lexi Daken's father says he doesn't believe his daughter wanted to die. 

"I don't think she was a kid who wanted her life to end," Chris Daken told a coroner's inquest on Tuesday morning.

"I don't believe that was what her end goal was."   

Daken said Lexi just wanted to get help and was made to feel like a "burden" on Feb. 18, 2021, when she went to the emergency department at the Dr. Everett Chalmers Hospital in Fredericton, where she waited nine hours. 

"This was a kid that had a lot of future plans," Daken testified on the second day of the inquest into Lexi's death. 

She loved sports and excelled at several, especially softball. She was a gifted student whose marks were all above 90, "with lots of hundreds," Daken said.

He said it was a family joke to feign disappointment in anything less than 100. 

Daken said Lexi wanted to be a neurologist from the age of nine. 

She also made long- and short-term plans with family members, including within hours of taking a fatal dose of pills the night of Feb. 23. 

Daken and Lexi had gone to Saint John that evening to pick up a side-by-side. Daken said they chatted easily on the drive and returned to their Maugerville home between 9:30 p.m. and 10 p.m.

He went to bed about an hour later, with Lexi telling him, "Love you, Dad." 

Around 2:30 a.m. or 3 a.m., Daken was awakened by a thump on the floor above him.

He found Lexi lying on the floor in the hallway.