Getting bitten by the truth
By John Mohan

So the man nobody heard, saw, or cared about is at the centre of the biggest political scandal in recent Manitoba history.

The man whose plight rendered him homeless and powerless may end the careers of some of our provinces most bureaucratically and politically powerful. A quiet, unassuming man has become a household name -- Brian Sinclair.

To recap, Sinclair was a wheelchair-bound double amputee. He also suffered from a solvent addiction and a severe speech impediment. Last September he was wheeled into the emergency department of the Winnipeg Health Sciences Centre (HSC) to have his plugged catheter attended to. He was found dead 34 hours later in the same area he'd patiently waited in. An autopsy determined Sinclair died of a bladder infection from a blocked catheter, which would have been easily treated by the medical professionals at HSC.

Trained spokespersons suggested that although tragic, Sinclair's death was really his own fault because he didn't follow hospital procedures of presenting himself to the triage desk when he arrived.

If staff were guilty of anything, it was being too compassionate because they assumed he simply needed a warm, dry place to stay and they often allowed homeless people to stay in the lobby overnight.

With promises new policies would be immediately implemented to ensure a tragedy like this could never happen again officials hoped we could all move on and forget about the terrible incident.

However, nothing seemed right about the Winnipeg Regional Heath Authority (WRHA) and HSC claims. If Brian was a regular at HSC emergency, staff would have known he needed proactive care because he rarely talked and never asserted himself when he needed help. Funny how the truth can come back to bite you -- even when it involves people who were poor and powerless.

Manitoba's chief medical examiner Dr. Thambirajah Balachandra has viewed the tapes and publicly revealed that Sinclair had been to the triage desk, and he had engaged with staff, and when he became violently ill, triage staff were unresponsive to the pleas of the security staff attending him.

An inquest is going to be held and rightly so. However, some questions may not be asked, including:

1. What would be the position of HSC and WRHA officials if there were no security tapes? 2. If we are looking for the resignations of WRHA and HSC executive and the provincial minister of health, to what degree should the Manitoba Nurses Union executives also be held accountable? 3. If non-government non-profit organizations are caught in a scandal like this, they immediately lose the confidence of the community which translates into the loss of financial support of donors and governments -- besides the fear of losing a few jobs -- what motivation does WRHA, HSC or the province have to improve their service to the public? Brian Sinclair's family and the public are owed some answers.

And systemic changes.

Originally printed in the Winnipeg Sun, Wednesday, February 11, 2009.
Reprinted with the permission of Sun Media Corporation.