In March of 2023, David Lippert, a 68-year-old executive from Kitchener, Ont. , went to the hospital in an ambulance because he was feeling weak and couldn’t walk. He wanted to find out what was wrong.
A day later, the hospital staff found him unconscious in the emergency room (ER). He had thrown up blood and was waiting to be admitted to the hospital. According to his medical records, he had a heart attack. He was later declared to be dead.
His wife, Lisbeth Lippert, wants to find out what happened and hopes that it will help make emergency room care better for other people.
“I just wanted him to be somewhere safe,” she told the media. “He’s really scared of dying in the ER. ”
Lisbeth says the hospital was very busy and noisy when she was there with her husband on the first day. He was kept close to where the nurse sits, and she heard them getting calls from other staff who were sick. She said it was obvious that there weren’t enough people working and they were very busy with patients waiting for care in the ER.
“They were running around really fast. ” Lisbeth said she doesn’t understand how anyone could do that job for a long time. She noticed that the nurses and orderlies were doing their best.
She said her husband was quickly checked by doctors and they said it was not a heart attack or stroke. However, they discovered that he had a severe lack of red blood cells, with a hemoglobin level of 40. They thought there might be bleeding in the stomach or intestines.
David was taking medication to make his blood thinner and had other health problems.
Lisbeth said he got some blood and now he wants to go home. He stayed and later decided to be admitted, as shown in his medical records. His blood count was still very low and could be risky.
The next morning at 7:30 am on March 14, Lisbeth got a phone call saying David had a medical emergency in the ER. Lisbeth had gone home to sleep before getting the call.
It took her almost a year to get all the papers from the hospital about her husband. The notes say that he was found in the emergency room, throwing up blood and his heart had stopped. “Medical teams quickly responded and performed four rounds of CPR to try to save him. ” He was brought to the intensive care unit, but they discovered that he was not responding. He also had seizures and showed signs that his brain was hurt because it didn’t get enough oxygen for a long time.
That’s when the doctor who specializes in stomach and intestines tested him and said he was bleeding inside his body.
The doctor’s papers show that David said yes to going into the hospital at midnight. No one added more information to his file until they found him the next morning.
“Did the GI doctors come when they were needed. ” Lisbeth asked
Brandon Douglas, who works at St Mary’s General Hospital, said that they are sorry for the family’s loss and they should contact their Patient Relations team for help.
Two emergency room doctors who were given permission to read the medical notes, told the media that they have concerns about not having enough staff and too many patients at the hospital, which could have led to the patient’s heart attack not being noticed or prevented sooner.
In a good health care system, a person with a stomach bleed and a low amount of hemoglobin is quickly admitted to the hospital. Blair Bigham told the media that there is an example of a man who should not have been in the emergency room for 22 hours before he got really sick. Bigham works at the University of Toronto as an assistant professor in the Public Health School.
“More people might die because of it,” said Dr. Michael Howlett, a doctor who helps people in urgent situations in Oshawa and the boss of the Canadian Association of Emergency Doctors, said that people have to wait a long time for help in the emergency room.
Howlett says he agrees with Lisbeth’s request for an investigation.
“It’s a person who stays in the emergency room for a long time because they have a serious health problem that is not easy to see, and it’s a threat to their life. They have to wait a long time for treatment. ” He said that the system is in trouble.
