REGINA, Sask. — The family of Kirsten Hanke, a 30-year-old Saskatoon woman who died in August after breaking her ankle, was at the Saskatchewan legislature Thursday looking for answers about her death.
Kirsten Hanke died Aug. 20 after blood clots travelled from her broken ankle to her lungs, according to her family. She died after waiting several days for surgery, which had originally been scheduled for Aug. 15 but was delayed.
Her parents, Kelly and Shawna Hanke, were at the legislature making their case.
“We just want to make sure something like this doesn't happen again to somebody else,” Kelly said.
“It's just been a horrific, horrific thing that we've had to endure over the last couple months. It's something that we'll never recover from. That's why we came here today from Saskatoon to make sure our daughter's memory still is not in vain, her loss is not in vain. We need to do something about our system, our health care system. It's failed our daughter, and we want to make sure it doesn't fail anybody else, son or daughter, moving forward. We'd like to see change. I'm not sure what it looks like. Hopefully there's some change coming here through our efforts.”
“There's nothing I don't think that I can say that can accurately describe what they're going through,” Opposition Leader Carla Beck told reporters afterward.
“I think it's really important here in the People's Building that they have a chance to talk about the questions we asked today and what they would like to see when it comes to the health care system in this province and making sure that no one goes through what their family is going through right now.”
The NDP raised the issue of Kirsten’s death during question period.
“She died because she didn’t get the simple surgery she needed on time,” Beck said. She asked Health Minister Jeremy Cockrill, “Will he meet with this family and does he take any responsibility for the state of our health care system?”
In response, Cockrill offered his condolences and called it an “incredibly tragic circumstance.” He said the Saskatchewan Health Authority had launched a safety review and that he would meet with family members following question period.
Speaking to reporters afterward, Kelly called Cockrill’s response “political. Typical. Nothing there that we could sink our teeth into that's going to involve any change. I think there was nothing concrete that came out of it in a nutshell.”
“I just didn't feel any sense that they were going to do something different,” Shawna said. “It felt like (they) already lied about reaching out to us, not until we had the media.”
“That's been concerning to the family — that nothing occurred until we got our story out there, which shouldn't be, should not be,” Kelly added.
As for the investigation by the Saskatchewan Health Authority, Kelly confirmed they had “one meeting with a couple of nurses earlier this month,” but “haven't heard any feedback from them as yet. They were going to take some of the findings from our discussions up the food chain, I guess, so to speak. We'll see what comes out of that, I guess.”
Kelly was critical of what he called “no accountability.”
“From the information we've received, it looks like it's been a huge fail on multiple levels there.”
Jim Billington, vice-president of communications for the Saskatchewan Health Authority, told reporters this was a “tragic situation, and I'd like to extend, on behalf of the Saskatchewan Health Authority, our sincere condolences to the family for this experience, and for her loss.”
He said the Saskatchewan Health Authority takes “patient safety incredibly seriously, and we're committed to that, that's one of our core values.”
Billington added that they are “also committed to accountability, and when these situations do arise, we have formal processes in place to ensure that patient safety concerns are reviewed, and in this case, while I'm not able to talk to the patient details, I can say an internal investigation is underway. That's included in the initial discussion with the family by Dr. Mike Kelly, who is the Provincial Head of Surgery for the Saskatchewan Health Authority.”
Billington said they did not have a timeline for when the review would be completed, but added that “our commitment is when that investigation is completed, to ensure that the family is aware of those results and to disclose those to the family.”
Billington said they recognize that “at the core of this, there's families that are grieving. They'd like answers, they'd like information as quickly as possible.”
At the same time, he said the SHA must “balance out with ensuring that we're doing a thorough review of the facts, ensuring that any gaps in care, any other information is identified, and so we'll balance those as we go through this.”
