Police are now investigating the death of a patient waiting for care in a New Brunswick emergency room.
Darrell Mesheau, 78, died in the emergency department waiting room at the Dr. Everett Chalmers Regional Hospital in Fredericton last July.
A coroner’s inquest was scheduled for this past spring, but it was postponed just days before it started after new information was brought forward.
“As per the Coroners Act, an inquest cannot go forward while a death is still being investigated,” chief coroner Heather Brander said in a news release on May 26.
RELATED: Coroner’s inquest into ER waiting room death postponed
Megan Barker, a spokesperson with the Fredericton Police Force, said they were contacted by the provincial Coroner’s Office in June.
“At the beginning of the inquest, the Coroner’s Office made the decision to pause as they felt the circumstances of the death necessitated investigation,” Barker said in a statement Thursday.
Barker said the investigation is being led by a sergeant in the force’s major crime unit.
Mesheau’s death, and the public outcry that followed, led to a major shakeup within the province’s healthcare system.
Three days later, the premier replaced Dorothy Shephard as health minister, fired Dr. John Dornan as president and CEO of Horizon Health, and dumped the boards of the regional health authorities.
“I’m prepared to do whatever is necessary to protect and improve the health care system in our province,” Premier Blaine Higgs said at the time.
“I have no doubt that every New Brunswicker and all of our healthcare workers are saddened and concerned by this story. We all want to know that when we go to the hospital, we will receive the help we need.”
RELATED: Man dies while in emergency department waiting room
Witness John Staples was in the emergency room on the night in question and recalled seeing a man in a wheelchair for several hours “in obvious discomfort.”
Staples said the man “seemed to go to sleep” and was later checked on by an ER attendant, who noticed he had stopped breathing.
“I looked at the gentleman and noticed that there was no rise and fall of the chest and abdomen, so I knew at that point he had passed,” Staples said in an interview in the days following the man’s death.
Staples shared the story on social media in hopes of raising awareness of the struggles in the province’s health care system.
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