Ontario couple whose teenage son died after 8-hour wait in ER calls for law reform

An Ontario family is calling on the provincial government to introduce legislation that would set maximum emergency room wait times for children after their teenage son died following an eight-hour wait for a doctor in a hospital last year.

GJ and Hazel van der Werken, of Burlington, Ont., said their 16-year-old son, Finlay, had a few days of mild illness and was suffering from migraines before his condition began to worsen. Hazel rushed him to Oakville Trafalgar Memorial Hospital on Feb. 7, 2024, she said.

"We go through to the normal emergency department which was filled with a lot of people, just the whole corridor was just full of people in chairs," Hazel recalled in an interview Thursday. "That was where Finlay was calling out in pain."

He was triaged quickly, she said, which gave her hope that he'd see at doctor "at any moment."

"But the 'any moment' turned into eight hours and 22 minutes," Hazel said.

Those eight hours felt like "a constant state of terror" she said, noting the couple later learned that Finlay's oxygen levels were rapidly deteriorating during the wait. Gradually, Finlay got quieter, she said.

"He basically gave up," said GJ. "Nobody was helping him."

When Finlay was finally assessed by a doctor, he was diagnosed with hypoxia and pneumonia caused by sepsis, Hazel said. He was intubated and eventually transferred to SickKids Hospital in Toronto, where he was put on machines to take over the functions of his heart, lungs and kidneys.

"No improvements were made, it just kept going from bad to worse, up to the point where the doctor called us in and said there is no chance of Finlay coming out of this," said GJ.

After Finlay died, the family decided to take legal action. They didn't want to stay silent about what happened to their son, GJ said.

"Long wait times are normal apparently, and nobody seems to fight this," said GJ. "Since Finlay can't voice his concerns, his wishes, his demands anymore, we felt obliged that we have to speak for him and try to do whatever we can to prevent this from happening to other people."

Earlier this year, the family filed a lawsuit against Halton Healthcare Services, which operates Oakville Trafalgar Memorial Hospital, and several other defendants. Among the allegations is that it had an "inadequate system" to ensure that patients like Finlay were seen by a doctor in an appropriate amount of time, and that it didn't have enough staff to monitor patients in the emergency department.

A statement from Halton Healthcare expressed condolences to Finlay's family, but said the organization does not comment on individual patient cases for privacy reasons.

"Like many hospitals, we are seeing more patients presenting with increasingly complex health conditions and co-morbidities, often requiring longer stays and more intensive care," Cheryl Williams, executive vice-president of clinical operations and chief nursing officer, said in the statement. "This places significant demand on our emergency departments, patient flow, bed availability and the patient experience."

Halton Healthcare noted it's "actively advancing" several measures to improve patient care, including new policies to address patient volume and communication.

But Finlay's story shows a bigger problem in the province's health-care system, said Hazel. The family has heard stories from others who have lost loved ones due to long hospital wait times, which she said was "not acceptable."

The family has asked for a coroner's inquest into Finlay's death, she said. They're also calling on the province to enact what they've proposed as "Finlay's Law" — legislation that would set maximum emergency room wait times for children and mandate safe staffing ratios, among other measures.

"For Finley's triage level, it should have been within 15 minutes that he was seen after being triaged. We are not even close," said Hazel. "With that many patients, and with patients with that high level of triage it's not sustainable ... worse than not sustainable, it led to Finley's death."

Earlier this week, the family launched a petition to call on the Ontario government to pass their proposed law, which would also include independent reviews of pediatric deaths in emergency rooms and better funding for pediatric emergency care.

"Children are not small adults; they deteriorate faster, require specialized dosing and equipment, and often cannot advocate for themselves," the petition reads. "Without enforceable standards, they remain at the greatest risk in a strained system."

When asked about the family's proposed law, the provincial health ministry called Finlay's case "deeply tragic and unacceptable."

"The Ministry of Health expects every hospital to uphold the highest standard of patient care and to comply with requirements under the Public Hospitals Act relating to the response and review of critical incidents to ensure they never happen again," it said

in a statement. "We also expect hospitals to disclose the findings from this review with to the impacted patients, or their family."

For Finlay's family, much of their frustration comes from the lack of action on hospital wait times, said Hazel, and how their son's death has sparked their distrust and fear of the health-care system.

"We're focusing on children right now because that is where our hearts were broken, but it concerns everybody. I'm terrified that any of us get sick and need to go to hospital," Hazel said.

"I'm exhausted telling our story. But if we don't do this, does the problem just continue until the next time it happens?"