Teen’s death after long ER wait prompts family’s push for new Ontario Law

A Burlington family wants answers after their 16-year-old son died after waiting hours for care at the Oakville Trafalgar Memorial Hospital last year.

The family is suing the hospital, calling for an inquest, and also wants new legislation to set a limit on how long children can wait to be seen in an emergency room.

Finlay Van Der Werken’s mother remembers his death all too well. She remembers the eight hour wait, the lack of care and the helplessness.

“I always describe him as a gentle giant. He was six-foot-two, size 15 feet. He had the biggest heart of anyone I know,” said Finlay’s mom Hazel Van Der Werken.

It’s easy for Hazel Van Der Werken to remember Finlay, but hard to remember how he was taken away from her.

“It’s too much to process. It’s the grief of losing a child, of losing Finlay,” said Hazel.

In February of last year Finlay was suffering from a migraine.

“On that Wednesday he was quiet for a bit, and then right about after 9 o’clock at night he cried out in pain,” said Hazel.

Hazel decided to take Finlay to the emergency room at Oakville Trafalgar Memorial Hospital. During the ride to the hospital the pain only got worse.

“His eyes were kind of like ‘what is going on?’” He was scared,” said Hazel.

When they got to the hospital Finlay was in agony.

“I was terrified. And I pressed the button that said emergency, and we were promptly told off for doing so. And he just said, ‘please help me,’” said Hazel.

Hazel says no doctor came to see him for hours, despite telling the nurses that she was concerned.

The hours just continued to pass.

“By now, when Finlay looks at me, he turns away because he knows that I can’t help him. And he knows that nobody there is helping him,” said Hazel.

READ MORE: Province to build two LTC homes, affordable housing on former Hamilton Psychiatric Hospital lands

Hazel says a doctor finally saw him in the morning, eight hours after they got there.

The doctor said he was suffering from a very bad case of pneumonia and the decision was made to transfer him to SickKids hospital in Toronto.

Before that could happen he went into cardiac arrest. At SickKids, Finlay was placed on a life-support system, but his organ function was only getting worse.

“He was taken off life support,” said Hazel.

As Hazel and her family try to process their grief, she decided something has to be done about the ER wait times that she says cost her son his life.

The family is suing Oakville Trafalgar Memorial Hospital and is calling for an inquest into Finlay’s death.

They have also started a petition calling for a law that aims to protect children in Ontario emergency rooms.

“We want there to be legal limits on how long can children wait in an ER before they are seen by a physician. I would hate for another story like ours to come up,” said Hazel.

In a statement sent to CHCH News, Dr. Cheryl Williams, executive vice president and the chief nursing executive at Halton Healthcare, says they are actively trying to speed up wait times by
establishing such things as a length of stay committee and a command centre with the goal of helping to improve flow.

Hazel says there is no one person to blame for her son’s death. She hopes her petition and her actions will spark collaboration and change.

Right now her petition, which you can find here, has close to 2,400 signatures.

READ MORE: Hamilton victim of naked thief attack recovers in hospital