Inquest begins in death of patient sent home in taxi

The daughter of a woman who died shortly after she was sent home in a taxi from a Winnipeg hospital says staff treated her mother like an “inconvenience.”

After being discharged from Seven Oaks Hospital in January 2012, Heather Brenan, a 68 year old woman, collapsed on her doorstep. She was then hurried back to hospital where she died from a blood-clot that had made its way to her lungs.

Dana, Brenan’s daughter, announced Monday on the first day of an inquest into her mother’s death.

“I just hope to get justice for my mother. She didn’t deserve to die — not the way she died,” Dana said outside court premises.

Brenan initially went to the emergency room at Seven Oaks after experiencing pain in her throat and trouble eating. After 4 days, she was released in the middle of the night, without giving her house keys, on the test that she was medically stable.

The hospital had contacted one of Brenan’s friends, who had a extra set of keys, to meet her at her home. Brenan was escorted by a taxi at the same time as her friend came. But she broke on her doorstep.

After nurses arrived, they transported her back to hospital where she died the next day.