Nurse thought Brian Sinclair was intoxicated, inquest told

A triage nurse who was on shift at a Winnipeg hospital's emergency room on the night Brian Sinclair died, after waiting 34 hours without care, has told the inquest into his deathshe initially thought the man was intoxicated.

Wendy Krongold, who was working as a triage nurse at the Health Sciences Centre's emergency ward on Sept. 20, 2008, was the first to acknowledge she was aware of Sinclair waiting there, but she admitted that she did not help him.

Krongold told the inquest on Thursday that she first thought the 45-year-old aboriginaldouble-amputee was an IPDA patient, referring to the Intoxicated Persons Detention Act.

Patients deemed to be IPDApatients would beso intoxicated, they would need to be detained by police.

However, only doctors can determine if a patient is intoxicated under the IPDA, and the patient has to be triaged before being seen by a doctor, the inquest was told.

Krongold testified that she thought Sinclair was IPDA because he was in a wheelchair,asstaff would oftenput intoxicated people in wheelchairs.

When asked if she thought he was IPDA because he was aboriginal or male, she said no.

The inquest was told thattriage nurses are generally in charge of reassessing IPDA patients until police officers pick them up.

Krongold admitted in her testimony that she walked by Sinclair without checking on him or providing care for him.

The inquest has heard that Sinclair was not intoxicated when hewent to the Health Sciences Centre's emergency room in the afternoon of Sept. 19, 2008.He wassent thereby a community clinicbecause he had noturinated in 24 hours.

It wasn't until 34 hours after he arrived at the hospitalthat he was found dead in his wheelchair aftermidnight on Sept. 21. He had not been triaged and he did not receive any care during his time there.

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The cause of his death was attributed to a treatable bladder infection caused by a blocked catheter.

Manitoba's chief medical examiner has previouslytestified that Sinclair had probably been dead for hoursby the time staff noticed him.

An administrative review of Sinclair's death found that staff at the Health Sciences Centre observed him at least 17 times during his 34-hour wait, but no action was takento address his medical needs.

'He wasn't on my list'

Krongoldtestified thatshe saw Sinclair in the waiting room at 4 a.m. on Sept. 20.

She admitted that Sinclair had been waiting for hours, but she thought he was sleeping, even though she did not see his face.

When asked why she did try to wake him up or look for his ER wristband, Krongold replied, "He wasn't on my list of patients. He wasn't on my chart. I don't know."

Krongold was then asked how she could have known Sinclair was noton her list unless she checked his ER wristband. She acknowledged that she did not check it.

The inquestsaw surveillance video footage of Krongold walking past Sinclair at 4:15 a.m. without waking him up. She went over to wake up another sleeping patient and check that person's wristband, the video showed.

Krongold testified that it took her about 30 seconds to decide that the sleeping Sinclair was intoxicated, but she admitted that she did not assess or reassess him, nor did she wake him up or check his wristband.

The next time Krongold said she saw Sinclair, he was dead. She and a resuscitation team tried to revive him, but they were unsuccessful, the inquest heard.

Nurse doesn't recall conversation with guard

Earlier on Thursday, another triage nurse told the inquestshe did notrecall having a key conversation with a security guard about Sinclair's well-being.

The testimony from Val Penner, who was also working as a triage nurse during Sinclair's wait, contradicted earlier testimony from security guard Ed Latour, who said he had raised concerns with her about a man sitting in the same spot in the emergency waiting room all night.

Penner told the inquestshe does not remember having that conversation with Latour.

However, the inquestsaw the surveillance video footage from the hospital on Sept. 20that shows Latour approaching Penner that evening and pointing to the emergency waiting room, and Penner looking in that direction.

According to Latour, Penner told him the patient had been discharged earlier that day before going on with her business.

Penner said while she doesn't remember the 1-minute conversation with the security guard, she said she must have thought Latour was talking about a different patient in a wheelchair, who had been triaged earlier and was in the same waiting room as Sinclair.

"That would make the most sense," she told the inquest.

She added that hypothetically speaking, if anyone warned her that a patient was in the ER all night, "You should go over and investigate."

Thursday's testimony appeared to beemotionally difficult for both nurses.Pennercriedafter finishing her testimony and Krongold was sobbingduring and afterher testimony.

The inquest hearings resume on Oct. 15 with more testimony from nurses.