Health officials and health-care workers have denied wrongdoing in response to a lawsuit alleging racial bias filed by the daughter of an Indigenous woman who died at Grace Hospital.
Jean Kemash, a 68 year old who had been experiencing shortness of breath and chills over several days, died three days after she went to the hospital’s emergency department on April 15, 2022.
Winnipeg lawyer Phillip Cramer filed a lawsuit on behalf of Kemash’s daughter, Kelly Jean Medwick, in Court of King’s Bench in April, naming the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority, Grace Hospital, two doctors and two nurses as defendants.
The daughter’s lawsuit is seeking general, special, exemplary and punitive damages to be determined by the court, as well as court costs and damages under the Fatal Accidents Act. No dollar figure is cited in her filing.
The April lawsuit alleged medical personnel had unconscious bias against Kemash, leading to a chain of “negligent acts and misconduct” that led to her death.
Lawyers for the WRHA, Grace Hospital and the two nurses filed a joint statement of defence in August, denying all allegations of negligence or breach of duty. The filing requests the court dismiss the lawsuit with costs awarded to the defendants.
“These defendants deny that any injury, loss or damage was sustained as a result of anything done or omitted by these defendants or anyone for whose negligent acts or omissions WRHA might be found vicariously liable,” reads the court filing.
The two doctors filed separate statements of defence also in August, seeking the lawsuit’s dismissal. Both doctors deny any allegations of bias against Kemash.
One of the doctors, named in the lawsuit as admitting Kemash to hospital, denied doing so, or providing her a bedside assessment.
Further, the doctors denied allegations they did not follow proper medical practices.
The two doctors claim all steps they took when providing care were done in a careful and prudent manner.
The WRHA’s Indigenous services department took part in the critical incident examination process after Kemash’s death.
That department “made reference to the potential of unconscious bias by staff against Indigenous patients which resulted in hospital staff receiving training to be aware of and to avoid unconscious bias” in its review, the April lawsuit said.
The defence filing on behalf of the WRHA, hospital and nurses asserts, based on the Manitoba Evidence Act and the Health System Governance and Accountability Act, that the critical incident review process is inadmissible as evidence in a legal proceeding.
The filing claims the lawsuit’s reference of the critical incident review process is irrelevant, privileged and an abuse of court process, arguing the court should compel Kemash’s daughter to amend the statement of claim and remove those allegations, or strike them from the claim.
Erik Pindera
Reporter
Erik Pindera is a reporter for the Free Press, mostly focusing on crime and justice. The born-and-bred Winnipegger attended Red River College Polytechnic, wrote for the community newspaper in Kenora, Ont. and reported on television and radio in Winnipeg before joining the Free Press in 2020. Read more about Erik.
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