Coroner says Salmon Arm care facility death was due to natural causes

SALMON ARM, B.C. – The BC Coroners Service says a man in a Salmon Arm long-term care home died of natural causes, and not an attack by another resident as first suspected.

Ninety-three-year-old John Young was found Oct. 2 in the room of another Bastion Place patient who suffered dementia, and died five days later.

Staff feared Young, who also suffered dementia, was attacked by the other patient.

But coroner Andrew Cave says a CT scan after death showed no evidence of trauma and he concluded Young died of natural causes.

The facility came under scrutiny seven years ago when two residents were beaten, and the issue resurfaced last year when a 95-year-old patient with severe dementia was accused of killing his 85-year-old roommate at a Vernon residential care home.

Prosecutors stayed second-degree murder charges in that case because the man was unfit to stand trial. (CFJC-The Canadian Press)