SYDNEY, N.S. — It was just before 4 a.m. on Feb. 23, 2018, when two nurses, returning to the Cape Breton Regional Hospital after a cigarette break, noticed a “brown lump in the walkway” of the hospital’s back parking lot.
They reported the sighting to hospital security officers who, after arriving on scene, called for an ambulance.
“I couldn’t really tell what it was,” testified licensed practical nurse Mary Salezman, during a provincial court trial Tuesday in Sydney.
“All I saw was a black shadow. I was scared to see what it was and Mary just didn’t have a good feeling about it,” testified registered nurse Amy Susin.
Both nurses were later reduced to tears in learning what they had seen was the body of 79-year-old Colin Francis MacDonald, curled up in the fetal position, who was a patient on the unit where both were working backshift.
As a result of the death, two other nurses were charged with using a forged document (check sheets and nursing flow sheets), as if genuine.
Charged are registered nurse Tammy Mary-Rose Carrigan-Warner, 43, of Sydney River, and Valerie Marie MacGillivary, 48, of Glace Bay, a licensed practical nurse.
Carrigan-Warner’s trial began Tuesday and is now adjourned until Dec. 11. The trial for MacGillivary is set for Dec. 16-19.
Prosecutors Rochelle Palmer and Mark Gouthro have called three Crown witnesses and defence lawyer Joel Pink also called a single witness as the individual would not be available next week to testify. MacGillivary is also scheduled to testify for the Crown.
MacDonald had been a patient on Unit 4C for about three months. The unit is for patients who have suffered strokes and those with mental health concerns. MacDonald was awaiting transfer to a long-term care facility, as his mind was failing him.
Tuesday’s hearing was told MacDonald had twice packed his bags and was ready to move back home and that prior to leaving the unit on the day of his death, he was described as agitated, confused and thought he was at work.
According to an agreed statement of facts presented during the hearing, the cause death was hypothermia.
Surveillance video from the hospital that was played in court shows MacDonald leaving the facility at 12:35 a.m. through an emergency exit door, walking through the hospital’s back entrance and into the parking lot. His remains were recovered on a walking bridge in the rear parking lot at 4 a.m.
The unit that housed MacDonald is considered a secure site. While visitors can enter freely, they need to be let out by a nurse or other staff member. The unit’s two fire security doors are alarmed in the event someone should try and leave without being seen.
However, on the night MacDonald left the facility, the alarms on both doors were not working.
On the morning MacDonald walked away, both Salezman and Susin testified there were 30 patients in the unit which made for a busy shift.
They testified it was Carrigan-Warner who went to the emergency department to identify MacDonald's remains. Neither witness could recall whether Carrigan-Warner or MacGillivary was the shift nurse for MacDonald.
The hearing continues next week.
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