Man commits suicide while waiting in hospital
Posted Nov 13, 2010 11:16 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The parents of a man who committed suicide while waiting more than 12 hours after walking into an Edmonton emergency room are questioning how the hospital could have let it happen.
Roy and Carol Woolsey, of Fawcett, Alberta, northwest of Edmonton, want to know why their son Shayne had to wait so long for help and why mental health staff were not available at the Royal Alexandra.
They also want to know why someone didn’t take his backpack from him, which the 34-year-old used to hang himself.
An emergency room doctor tells The Edmonton Journal, his hospital is woefully under-resourced.
The most recent information from Alberta’s health superboard shows between 21 and 64 per cent of admitted patients received the appropriate care at the province’s major hospitals within an 8-hour period, during the first week of November.
