The coroner's report into the death of a 73-year-old man denied surgery at St. Mary's has been released.
On November 2, 2015, award-winning producer, director and screenwriter Mark Blandford arrived at the Côte-des-Neiges hospital's ER with abdominal pain. After a quick check in to ensure vital signs, he was told to return to the waiting room until a doctor could see him.
While in the waiting room Blandford was found unconscious, and CPR was performed. An ultrasound showed a ruptured aortic aneurysm.
When called to perform vascular surgery on the patient, a surgeon told ER doctors he could not do so because of budget cuts.
He was transferred to the MUHC, but could not be saved.
According to The Gazette, coroner Krystyna Pecko does not fault the hospital for not performing the procedure, and even raised doubts that Blandford may have been saved at all.
Pecko does note that high-ranking hospital officials failed in their job to communicate potentially lifesaving information to staff members, and criticized them for neglecting to have a plan B for this type of situation.
The coroner said that because of the confusion between ER staff and the team working surgeries, Blandford's transfer to the MUHC was delayed 40 minutes.