A Hanwell, N.B., woman who went to the emergency room at Horizon’s Dr. Everett Chalmers Regional Hospital on March 22, 2022, and learned the following morning that her fetus had no heartbeat has settled her lawsuit against the health authority, the hospital and four physicians.
Aimee Dunn had sued for negligence, accusing the doctors and hospital of failing to provide proper medical care, according to the statement of claim filed in March 2024 in the Court of King’s Bench in Fredericton.
Dunn and the father, Mitchell Waite, who was also listed as a plaintiff, had been seeking compensation for pain and suffering, loss of earnings, and aggravated and punitive damages.
The matter never went to trial but instead was discontinued in December, with the consent of all named parties.
“It was an amicable conclusion,” said Aris Lavranos, the Nova Scotia-based lawyer who represented Dunn and Waite.
Parents of stillborn child settle lawsuit with Fredericton hospital
When asked how much the case settled for, Lavranos declined to disclose details about any financial compensation for his clients.
“We had a satisfactory conclusion,” he said. “It was tolerable to them, agreeable to them, and that’s basically all I can say.”
Lavranos, who is both a lawyer and a practising emergency medicine physician, said he believes no single factor was to blame for the loss of the fetus.
It was a “summation of things,” he said.
The statement of claim alleged the doctors failed to appropriately consider a life-threatening series of diagnoses, failed to check on the fetus and failed to communicate among themselves, the nursing staff and obstetrical teams.
“I don’t think any of the defendants were malicious in any way,” Lavranos said. “I don’t think they’re malevolent actors. The negligence that we claimed is for all sorts of errors, but I think they are largely human errors.”
Lavranos said he met Dunn and Waite after they made enquiries at MacGillivray Law. Lavranos, who was articling there at the time, had been asked to review potential medical malpractice files.
He said he thought Dunn’s case had merit and consulted with two other experts who felt the same way.
Dunn did not respond to requests for an interview. Lavranos said patients who settle their cases often agree to some form of non-disclosure agreement.
When CBC News met with Dunn in August 2022, she said she was still grieving the loss of the daughter she named Reia and the pregnancy that ended just five weeks shy of term.
She was also feeling angry, after hearing about a man who had recently died alone in the same emergency department, where she had felt overlooked and dismissed.
That man was identified as Darrell Mesheau, 78, a former diplomat. He had spent about seven hours in the waiting room before he was discovered slumped and motionless in a wheelchair by a licensed practical nurse around 4:30 a.m. on July 12, 2022.
It came to light last year that Mesheau’s family also reached a confidential settlement in their negligence lawsuit against Horizon and two nurses.
Dunn came forward to CBC News and shared her medical records because she said Mesheau’s death made her feel as if staff hadn’t learned from her loss.
Some of the details contained in her records reappeared in her statement of claim.
According to that court filing, Dunn was triaged in the emergency room at 5:43 p.m. on March 22, 2022, and then placed in a room where she was not continuously monitored, despite reporting intense pain and concern for her fetus.
Dunn’s claim said she was not moved to acute care until after 6 a.m. the following day, after she had a seizure. Following the seizure, an ultrasound was ordered and no fetal heart rate was detected, according to the claim. Only then was obstetrics paged, for the first time, for immediate assistance, she claimed.
Dunn said in court filings that she was diagnosed with HELLP syndrome — a severe and life-threatening pregnancy complication —severe pre-eclempsia with eclamptic seizure and diabetic ketoacidosis.
Later that day, March 23, she underwent a caeserean section and delivered a stillborn girl.
In an email to CBC News, Horizon acknowledged the lawsuit had concluded and declined any further comment.
In the months following her loss, Dunn, who then worked in housekeeping at the Chalmers Hospital, and Waite, who worked as an auto mechanic, both felt discouraged about seeking legal recourse.
That was partly because they’d been warned about the costs, risks and challenges of going up against the formidable resources of the Canadian Medical Protective Association, which provides legal counsel to doctors and pays their claims.
In its last published annual report for 2024, the association reported 1,021 resolved legal actions. Only nine ended in judgments for the plaintiffs. More than 300 ended in settlements and more than 600 were dismissed or abandoned.
The association also reported paying $322 million, an all-time high, in compensation to patients proved harmed by negligent care.
