Closing arguments delayed in Ontario nurse manslaughter trial

BARRIE, Ont. – Closing arguments have been postponed in the manslaughter trial of an Ontario nurse who took a patient off life support without a doctor’s order.

Legal issues prompted the last-minute scheduling change Wednesday. The trial is expected to resume in a Barrie, Ont., court later this week.

Joanna Flynn is also charged with criminal negligence causing death in the March 2014 incident.

Flynn was assigned to be Deanna Leblanc’s primary care nurse in the intensive care unit of Georgian Bay General Hospital in Midland, Ont.

The Crown alleges the nurse pressured Leblanc’s husband into consenting to have his wife taken off life support even though no doctor had ordered it.

The court has heard that Leblanc’s prognosis was dire and that an emergency room doctor did not expect her to live.