Son of man who died in N.B. ER says premier using death to score ‘political points’
Global News
Ryan Mesheau said he was taken aback by Blaine Higgs's vow to shield health-care workers from legal action in response to a lawsuit filed by the family.
The son of a 78-year-old man who died in a Fredericton emergency department after waiting to be seen for nearly seven hours says New Brunswick’s premier is using his father’s death to score political goals ahead of an election.
Ryan Mesheau said he was taken aback by Premier Blaine Higgs’s recent vow to shield health-care workers from legal action in response to a lawsuit filed by the Mesheau family alleging their father died because he received inadequate care.
“I became quickly appalled because of the misinformation that Premier Higgs chose to spread in his statements, seeming to use the death of my father for what appeared to be a self-serving attempt to gain political points,” Mesheau said in an emailed statement.
“Premier Higgs must understand that the best way to garner political gain from this situation is to earn it. And there is an opportunity now to do so.”
Darrell Mesheau arrived in an ambulance at the Dr. Everett Chalmers Regional Hospital on July 11, 2022. A nurse found him about seven hours later in the waiting room, unresponsive and slumped in his wheelchair. His death prompted widespread public outcry and increased scrutiny of the state of the province’s health system.
At the time, Higgs said Mesheau’s death was “simply unacceptable” and in response, he replaced his health minister and the head of Horizon Health Network, which oversees the province’s anglophone hospitals. A coroner’s inquest in April found that Mesheau died of heart failure.
His family filed a lawsuit in July, alleging Mesheau died because of “reckless and outrageous acts and omissions” made by Horizon Health and two nurses at the hospital, Danielle Othen and April Knowles. The lawsuit filed in New Brunswick’s Court of King’s Bench names the Horizon Health Network and the two nurses as defendants. Its claims have not been tested in court.
In an email, Kris McDavid, spokesman for Horizon, said the health authority “won’t be making anyone available for interviews,” when asked if the nurses named in the lawsuit wanted to comment.
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