This Winnipeg family was told their loved one was dying, but it wasn’t her in hospital

When Bianca Beauregard got a call last Friday that her sister was in a Winnipeg hospital after an overdose and was not expected to survive, she said she was hysterical.

But hours later, after family members — including another sister of the woman and the woman’s 12-year-old daughter — visited the Health Sciences Center to say their goodbyes, they discovered that the woman on life support had no loved one.

“My sister, she was saying goodbye and my family was there doing prayers, and she went to go and hold my sister’s hand [the woman] said Beauregard, who lives in Lethbridge, Alta. Beauregard, who lives in Lethbridge, Alta., said she received a number of calls from the hospital that day because she’s closer to her sister.

She said her family then began showing pictures of the hospital staff to prove that the patient was not who they thought. Beauregard said she was listening on the phone as the situation developed.

“I could hear them in the background grunting, they looked panicked. HSC looked panicked.”

Now Beauregard wonders how this happened in the first place.

A Shared Health spokesperson said in an email that they “regret that this error has caused distress to the affected families”.

Employees are misnamed: Shared Health

When unconscious patients are brought to the emergency department, most of their identities before admission are confirmed through identification documents or through information collected from other people prior to transfer, the statement said.

“This information is provided to hospital staff on arrival and used to contact next of kin,” the spokesperson said. “We can confirm that in this unfortunate case, an incorrect patient name was provided to hospital staff.”

Shared Health said if a patient is unidentified when they arrive, staff will contact “outside agencies” to help identify them.

Beauregard wants to see stricter protocols to ensure this doesn’t happen to another family.

“I want to see the hospital held accountable for their actions,” Beauregard said.

She said her family was told the woman had arrived at the hospital around 5 a.m., and that the person who called the ambulance identified the patient as her sister.

“All they got out of it was the person who called 911,” Beauregard said.

“I was relieved that it wasn’t my sister but I was still… upset and still angry because, like, I was broken. We were all devastated. Her daughter was in the room thinking her mom was going to spend the night.”

The 12-year-old girl thought her mother was dying

Negasi Michell said that while he is no longer involved with Beauregard’s sister, they do share a 12-year-old daughter. He said a social worker also called him on Friday afternoon.

“I kind of prepared myself to tell my daughter because I knew she was going to crush,” Michelle said.

He was in the hospital with his daughter when the mistaken identity was discovered. He said his daughter was confused.

“It felt really surreal how all this happened,” he said. “My daughter was, like, devastated and then [to] Finding out it’s not her, it was a relief, but at the same time, like, I don’t like that she had to go through all that.”

Michel said that while he thought the woman kind of looked like his ex, he didn’t question her identity at first because he thought she shouldn’t look like herself after everything she’s been through medically.

He said he or his daughter had not seen her mother recently.

The Beauregard family managed to contact her sister over the weekend, and now they know she’s fine.

“We’re relieved that my sister is still here with us,” she said, but she feels terrible about the other woman’s family.