Ambulances are parked at the entrance to the emergency department in a file photo. The Canadian Press/Darryl Dyck
An Ontario family is suing their local health authority, alleging that their 16-year-old son died of a treatable medical condition after waiting more than eight hours in a crowded ER.
The family of Finlay van der Werken say their son suffered a medical crisis in February 2024, but after rushing him to hospital, he waited more than eight hours in the ER at the Oakville Trafalgar Memorial Hospital (OTMH) before dying just over 24 hours later. The family say doctors later told them that earlier treatment might have prevented van der Werken’s death.
The lawsuit, filed Feb. 19, names Halton Healthcare Services Corporation, along with 13 other defendants including seven doctors, and is filed by five plaintiffs, including van der Werken’s parents. It alleges that van der Werken wasn’t properly treated or monitored and asks for $1.3 million in damages.
According to his family, van der Werken had a migraine that got rapidly worse, leading to his mother Hazel driving him to the ER at OTMH. She informed staff of her son’s intense pain, but hospital records show despite going through triage at 10 p.m., a doctor didn’t see van der Werken until 6:22 a.m. the following day, the family say.
He was diagnosed with sepsis and pneumonia, with the doctor warning that “acute deterioration” was occurring, after which van der Werken had a heart attack and was taken to SickKids hospital in Toronto. At SickKids, van der Werken was put on life support but went into organ failure, at which point his parents made the decision to remove him from life support.
At a later meeting with hospital staff, Hazel van der Werken said they didn’t admit to doing anything incorrectly but did say that if he had been treated earlier, van der Werken’s outcome may have been different.
According to Meghan Walker, the lawyer representing the family, despite being assessed as level 2 on the Canadian Triage and Acuity Scale (CTAS), a severity rating which recommends that a doctor assess the patient within 15 minutes, van der Werken wasn’t seen for more than eight hours.
“We are profoundly moved by the outpouring of public support and remain steadfast in our pursuit of accountability and systemic change,” Walker said in a July 29 email to The Epoch Times.
Halton Healthcare executive vice president of Clinical Operations and chief nursing officer Cheryl Williams said in a July 29 email to The Epoch Times that “we extend our deepest condolences to the van der Werken family on the tragic loss of Finlay,” but noted that “Halton Healthcare does not comment on individual patient cases in order to respect patient privacy, confidentiality, and legal requirements.”
Halton Healthcare has been facing “more patients presenting with increasingly complex health conditions and co-morbidities, often requiring longer stays and more intensive care,” according to Williams. “This places significant demand on our emergency departments, patient flow, bed availability and the patient experience.”
She noted that Halton Healthcare has an Emergency Department working group working to improve patient outcomes and also has a Length of Stay Committee, Command Centre, and scheduling upgrades to ensure patients are seen in a timely manner.
