No aboriginal services the weekend man died waiting in Winnipeg ER

WINNIPEG – There were no aboriginal services staff working the weekend a man died during a 34-hour wait at a Winnipeg hospital’s emergency room.

Aboriginal services worker Matilda Patrick told an inquest into the death of Brian Sinclair that no one in her department works weekends at the Health Sciences Centre.

She says she worked with Sinclair in 2007 when he lost both his legs to frostbite after being found frozen to church steps in the dead of winter.

Patrick says she acts as a liaison between aboriginal patients and staff, but didn’t find out about Sinclair’s death in September 2008 until she heard about it in the media.

She told inquest judge Tim Preston he should recommend aboriginal services be staffed seven days a week.

Sinclair was never examined by medical staff in the ER and died of a treatable bladder infection caused by a blocked catheter.