An inquest has been introduced into the demise of a 24-year-old woman who went to hospital in St. Catharines, Ont., with again ache, then died.
On Dec. 9, 2021, Heather Winterstein went to the emergency division at St. Catharines Normal Hospital for a extreme backache, her household informed CBC Hamilton shortly after her demise. Earlier that week, she had fallen down stairs at her father’s home, the place she was dwelling, and was in a variety of ache, her mom stated.
Lower than 48 hours later, she died.
On Wednesday, Dr. Karen Schiff, regional supervising coroner, West Area, Hamilton Workplace, introduced that an inquest will likely be held into Winterstein’s demise.
“The household is relieved {that a} formal and neutral inquest will likely be held to completely and transparently evaluation the circumstances below which our liked one tragically died,” the household stated in an e mail assertion despatched to CBC Hamilton by Winterstein’s aunt.
“Heather’s story must be informed and understood each medically and in its full context to information techniques to embrace measures of prevention of Indigenous inequality. An inquest is a crucial step in understanding Heather’s expertise and within the means of reconciliation.”
Mom had questions following demise
Shortly after Winterstein’s demise, her household stated she was initially despatched dwelling with Tylenol after the Dec. 9 hospital go to however returned to hospital the following day, solely to break down within the ready room.
Her mother, Francine Shimizu, who stated she was listed as her daughter’s emergency contact, informed CBC Hamilton then she was known as to the hospital at 8:30 p.m. on Dec. 10, 2021.
She stated she arrived to be taught that medical employees had been attempting to resuscitate Winterstein and walked in as they had been doing chest compressions. Fifteen minutes later, her mom stated, she was pronounced lifeless.
Shimizu stated Winterstein had been there for a while. She puzzled why she wasn’t contacted sooner, she stated.
Relations say they had been informed by the native public well being unit that she had died from a Strep A blood an infection. They got the information once they had been known as for Strep A contact tracing after her demise.
“She was so loving, she was so giving,” Shimizu stated, including that Winterstein was working to finish her highschool diploma and hoped to check nursing. She liked animals and appreciated to attract. “She did not need to be handled like that.”
Shimizu, who’s a registered nurse and has labored in long-term care, stated beforehand that a greater degree of care ought to have been supplied for her daughter.
A picture shared on snapchat of Heather Winterstein, proper, and her mom, Francine Shimizu, from 2020. (Submitted by Francine Shimizu)
Exterior evaluation was carried out
In January of 2022, Niagara Well being officers stated “an inner high quality care evaluation is underway to completely perceive the affected person’s expertise, and the household will likely be concerned on this course of.”
In a press release to CBC again then, Lynn Guerriero, Niagara Well being president and chief government officer, stated she was “deeply troubled” by the issues raised in regards to the demise.
She stated the evaluation, which befell in January and February of that yr, “recognized some alternatives for enchancment to assist us present the very best care for everybody, notably throughout occasions of overcapacity and well being system pressures.”
Guerriero did not share the suggestions, however stated Niagara Well being was reviewing how its emergency division works, and the way it identifies and helps sufferers from equity-seeking teams. She additionally stated she has spoken to Winterstein’s household and would speak to Indigenous leaders in the neighborhood.
Shimizu puzzled if her daughter’s Indigenous heritage might have been a think about her care.
“They could not have recognized her as that, nonetheless the very fact of the matter is that she is Indigenous,” Shimizu stated.
Whereas Winterstein has Indigenous heritage — her mom says Shimizu and her sister had been adopted once they had been younger and reconnected with household on Six Nations of the Grand River within the Nineties — it’s unclear if hospital employees knew that.
CBC didn’t evaluation any paperwork associated to the household’s historical past.
A press launch from the Ministry of the Solicitor Normal this week stated that “the inquest will look at the circumstances surrounding Ms. Winterstein’s demise.”
The jury might make suggestions geared toward stopping additional deaths, it stated, and that particulars in regards to the date and site of the inquest can be supplied at a later date.
“I do not need any person else’s youngster searching for assist… being alone. God… it simply kills me,” Shimizu stated in 2022. “It simply kills me to know that she was struggling.”
