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Heather Winterstein’s skin was discoloured and she was struggling to control her body in a wheelchair the day she died at the St. Catharines, Ont., hospital, a woman who was waiting to see a doctor that day told a coroner\u2019s inquest.<\/p>\n
Emmaleen Young is believed to be the last person who spoke to Winterstein. She died of sepsis on Dec. 10, 2021.<\/p>\n
On Friday, Young testified she\u2019s haunted by the look on Winterstein\u2019s face shortly before she collapsed in the emergency department\u2019s waiting room.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“She just looked terrified. In her eyes, I could see it.<\/p>\n
“That’s what gets me: She clearly wanted help.”<\/p>\n
Young is among witnesses who\u2019ve described what they\u2019ve seen or experienced leading up to Winterstein\u2019s death at the hospital, which in 2024 was officially renamed Marotta Family Hospital. A total of over 20 people are expected to testify over 13 days. The hearings, which began March 30, are being held virtually.\u00a0<\/p>\n
An Ontario coroner\u2019s jury is tasked with determining the facts in a case and may make recommendations to prevent similar deaths, but doesn\u2019t assign blame or make findings of guilt or innocence.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Young recalled sitting in the hospital’s packed waiting room in the early afternoon of Dec. 10. She said she saw a man wheel Winterstein to a triage nurse station about two metres away from her.<\/p>\n
“I could see she’s not OK,\u201d Young said about Winterstein. “She was clearly having issues controlling her body. She was very shaky.<\/p>\n
“She was slumped in a weird position on the [wheel]chair.”<\/p>\n
Young also noticed Winterstein\u2019s body appeared discoloured.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“She had this blotchy rash. It was on her face, on her neck, on her tummy. I could see it everywhere on her body.”<\/p>\n
Young said Winterstein appeared to say something brief to the triage nurse, but the nurse snapped sharply at Winterstein.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“I heard the nurse say, ‘We’ll be with you in a moment, Heather.’ I felt it was belittling. It was quite shocking to me.<\/p>\n
“I felt Heather was an inconvenience to this triage nurse.”<\/p>\n
Winterstein had developed an extreme reaction to a bacterial infection, resulting in sepsis, a life-threatening condition that damages the body’s own tissues and organs.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A day before Young addressed the inquest, the jury heard from a triage nurse, who said triage nursing staff were facing a crush of patients in the waiting room on Dec. 10, in part due to the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n
Young said she asked Winterstein if she needed help. Winterstein stuttered and struggled to say “no.”<\/p>\n
Winterstein\u2019s first attempt to get hospital help was on Dec. 9, when she arrived by ambulance, complaining of pain after reportedly falling down a flight of stairs the day before. She was given a Tylenol and sent home with instructions to return to the emergency department if her condition worsened.<\/p>\n
The emergency physician who assessed her determined “social issues” were behind her hospital visit, the inquest previously heard<\/p>\n
She returned to the emergency department the next day by ambulance and was sent to the waiting room until she could be seen by a doctor. On Thursday, the inquest heard although hospital rules say Winterstein was supposed to be reassessed by a triage nurse every 15 minutes, given the seriousness of her condition, no reassessments were done in the 2\u00bd hours she waited.<\/p>\n
Eventually, Young said, Winterstein stopped moving altogether. At 2:41 p.m. ET, she collapsed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“Her body folds on itself like her head’s too heavy. Her head hits the top of thighs and she falls out of the wheelchair, onto the ground.”<\/p>\n