A coroner’s inquest has heard that a 78-year-old man who showed up pale and short of breath at a Fredericton emergency room in 2022 was left to sit in the waiting room for nearly seven hours before he was found dead, slumped in a chair.
Darrell Mesheau arrived by ambulance at 9:33 p.m. on July 11, 2022, at Dr. Everett Chalmers Regional Hospital and was initially seen by nurse Danielle Othen, who directed him to the waiting room.
She told the inquest today that she was the only triage nurse during her 12-hour shift and did not have time to check on patients in the waiting room.
It was only after Mesheau was found unresponsive by another nurse at 4:33 a.m. that a doctor was called, and Dr. Shawn Tiller told the inquest in a pre-recorded statement that he found the patient was already “cool to the touch.”
Tiller said a team of medical professionals performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation – also known as CPR – and gave Mesheau epinephrine to charge his heart, but he was pronounced dead at 4:44 a.m.
After the death came to light in 2022, New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs replaced his health minister and the head of the health network responsible for the hospital, calling Mesheau’s death “simply unacceptable.”