Sask. woman disfigured in alleged medical mishap says she's still waiting for an apology

PRINCE ALBERT -

A patient who suffered third-degree burns from an injection while in a Prince Albert hospital say she's gone nearly two years without an apology or compensation for her injuries.

“Every day I ask myself why this happened, why me?” said 54-year-old, Janette Sanderson from James Smith Cree Nation.

The incident happened at the Victoria Hospital in Prince Albert June 30, 2020 when Sanderson was taken to the hospital by ambulance to receive treatment for a broken ankle.

Shortly after she arrived, Sanderson says a nurse injected a substance through an intravenous syringe into her arm. She says she felt a burning sensation from the injection and asked the nurse to stop the injection, but was ignored. When she asked what it was she says the nurse told her it was potassium.

She says she was also given an excessive amount of pain medication upon her arrival to the emergency room that she didn’t ask for or want to take. Sanderson says she believes racism towards First Nations people played a part in the events that took place at the hospital.

Over the next three weeks, the flesh on Sanderson’s arm peeled where the IV injection was administered, causing her severe pain. She says doctors describe the injury to her as a third-degree burn.

She says she’s lost the mobility in her dominant hand and three of her fingers and has a disfiguring scar from her wrist to her elbow. She can’t do tasks like she could before the incident like write or sew.

“It’s very hard now. To write my name is difficult,” Sanderson said.

Her family had entered into discussions with representatives from the Saskatchewan Health Authority to book a meeting in October of 2020, but the family cancelled the meeting because the SHA said they would not answer any questions about the incident.

To date, neither the SHA nor the Victoria Hospital has offered an apology or compensation for the injury.

“Those questions that we prepared, they declined to answer. So it’s been very emotional,” said Sanderson’s daughter Janel Kinch who attended the meeting with her mother.

Kinch says it's been 21 months since the incident and she’d like to resolve the matter.

“We just want an apology and this to be dealt with properly. My mom suffered so much,” she said.

In an emailed statement, the SHA told CTV News that due to patient privacy concerns, the SHA is not able to provide any further information regarding the case.

“We take all concerns from patients and their family members very seriously. Anyone who has concerns over their care experience is encouraged to contact our Quality of Care Coordinators,” said the SHA in a statement.

The SHA says through this process, they work with patients and their families to assist when incidents like this arise.

Kinch says they had hired a lawyer but he retired in October 2021 and dropped their case. They were advised to file a civil suit against the hospital and SHA before June 30, 2022 and have found a new lawyer. She says that’s been another stumbling block for the family as they currently don’t have the disposable income available to pay the retainer fee required for the lawyer and have started a fundraiser.

“My mom should be getting compensated for what was done to her arm and for the loss of her arm.”

Due to the open wounds on her arm and the high chance of infection, Sanderson stayed in hospital from June until December 2020.

Today, Sanderson still has a cast on her ankle and also suffered a heart event while in hospital in 2020. She also has diabetes and travels to Tisdale for kidney dialysis.

“Seeing her in pain every day is very heartbreaking,” Kinch said.

She says Sanderson’s siblings, children and grandchildren no longer trust health care staff at Victoria Hospital and have switched all of their medical care to other centres.

“My family is scared to access services there. And so I have my own family doctor in Melfort,” said Kinch. “Our family is trying to avoid Prince Albert.”

In August of 2020, the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations (FSIN) called a press conference to share Sanderson’s experience, saying staff at Victoria Hospital ignored Sanderson’s plea and questions because she was a First Nations person.

In its statement, the SHA told CTV it looks forward to ongoing discussions with the FSIN and Indigenous Services Canada on how it can best work with the First Nations Health Ombudsperson "with an overall goal to improve health-care outcomes for First Nations and Métis people.”