Hospital and nurses deny negligence in N.B. emergency room death of 78-year-old man

The outside of the emergency room of the Dr. Everett Chalmers Regional Hospital in Fredericton. (CTV Atlantic/Laura Brown)

FREDERICTON — A New Brunswick health network and two nurses named in a lawsuit by the family of a 78-year-old man who died waiting for care in a Fredericton emergency room deny all allegations against them and are asking for the claim to be dismissed.

Darrell Mesheau’s family is suing Horizon Health Network, licensed practical nurse April Knowles and registered nurse Danielle Othen, alleging Mesheau died because of “reckless and outrageous acts and omissions.”

The retired diplomat arrived in an ambulance at the Dr. Everett Chalmers Regional Hospital on July 11, 2022, and about seven hours later a nurse found him in the waiting room, unresponsive and slumped in his wheelchair. A coroner’s inquest in April found that Mesheau died of heart failure.

Mesheau’s death increased scrutiny of the state of the province’s health system and prompted widespread public outcry. Blaine Higgs, who was Progressive Conservative premier at the time, called the death “simply unacceptable.” He swiftly replaced his health minister and the head of Horizon Health Network, which oversees the province’s anglophone hospitals.

The family’s statement of claim filed in New Brunswick’s Court of King’s Bench in July alleges Mesheau was triaged at a level that required his vital signs to be checked every 30 minutes, but it says they were only checked twice in the seven hours he was in the emergency room. It also claims Othen did not ask Mesheau, who had cardiac issues, about his medical history.

None of the claims have been tested in court, and the Mesheau family declined a request for comment on Monday.

Ryan Burgoyne, a lawyer for the health authority and the nurses, says in a statement of defence filed Feb. 3 that the defendants maintain there was no negligence committed.

Knowles was assigned to the hospital’s “psychiatric pod” and, at times, helped with monitoring patients in the emergency department waiting room, the document says. It denies the allegations that Mesheau’s medical history was not recorded and that he was only assessed twice after being triaged.

Horizon and the nurses admit that a “code blue” was called for Mesheau at 4:34 a.m. after he was found unresponsive and cool to touch, and he was pronounced dead at 4:44 a.m.

“At all material times (the health authority and the nurses) used reasonable skills and due care in the treating and caring for Darrell Mesheau and showed diligence commensurate with the standard of care expected of them,” the defence statement says.

“The defendants deny all allegations of negligence as against them. The defendants state that Darrell Mesheau died of heart failure and that no actions or inactions of the defendants caused or contributed to his death.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 10, 2025.