Finlay van der Werken, 16, died after waiting eight hours to see a doctor in the hospital. His family is now suing Halton Healthcare Services for his death.
In February 2024, Finlay woke up with a migraine, which kept him home from school. His mother, Hazel, said this wasn’t uncommon when he was getting sick.
However, his condition soon began to worsen, prompting her to take him to Oakville Trafalgar Memorial Hospital.
His mother drove as fast as she could to the ER, as he “screamed and cried out in pain”.
As soon as they arrived, they ran out of their car and rushed into the ER. They immediately noticed how packed the corridors were, with people lined up everywhere.
Finlay and his mother sat down, as he continued to cry out in pain – something that his mother said he would never do, unless it was an emergency.
Despite telling the nurses about his son’s condition, they were told they would have to wait several hours to see a doctor.
Hazel recalled the nurse telling them that only one doctor was working, but that another would be coming in in an hour.
According to hospital records, Finlay was triaged at approximately 10 p.m. but wasn’t seen by a doctor until nearly 6:30 a.m.
He was diagnosed with pneumonia with hypoxia, as well as sepsis, which put him at a high risk for severe complications.
He was admitted to the hospital; however, his oxygen levels continued to decline throughout the night.
His mother said his breathing was extremely shallow at that point, as it hurt him to breathe.
Doctors eventually needed to intubate Finlay. They also decided to transfer him to SickKids Hospital in Toronto, where they would be able to treat his condition better.
Before the transfer could happen, however, he went into cardiac arrest. Pneumonia and septic shock were later determined to be the contributing cause.
He was immediately rushed to SickKids Hospital, where he was placed on an ECMO machine – a life-support system that takes over a person’s heart and lung function – at the ICU.
However, his organs continued to shut down. Doctors eventually told his parents that continuing on the ECMO machine would be “futile”.
They eventually had to make the hard decision to take him off life support.
Following Finlay’s death, Hazel and his husband, GJ met with hospital staff to review what happened. To their dismay, the hospital denied any wrongdoing.
The family has since launched a lawsuit against Halton Healthcare Services, alleging that the staff at the hospital failed to monitor Finlay and that they did not have proper protocols in place for his treatment.
They have also launched “Finlay’s Voice”, an awareness campaign that pushes for urgent reform in Canada’s ERs.
