‘The system is obviously broken,’ says N.S. man whose wife died in ER

For the Holthoff family, a trip to the emergency room at the Cumberland Regional Health Care Centre on New Year’s Eve turned into a nightmare.

Gunter Holthoff, of Tidnish, N.S., said his wife Allison began feeling sick the morning of Dec. 31, but thought she just had an upset stomach. When it worsened throughout the morning, Holthoff drove his wife to the nearest emergency department in Amherst, N.S., around 11 a.m.

Holthoff said he carried Allison into the hospital on his back. 

“She was obviously in pain,” he told CBC News in an interview Sunday. “I was rolling her in the wheelchair and she could hardly sit up.”

The pair waited more than six hours in the emergency department waiting room and then in a room inside the unit as Allison’s pain worsened. Holthoff said it was after 6 p.m. before they saw a doctor and Allison received any treatment.

By then, he said, it was too late.

How tragedy unfolded

After they were triaged, Holthoff recalled, the nurses asked for a urine sample. When he took Allison to the bathroom, he couldn’t support her alone and she fell to the floor.

“I couldn’t get her up myself so I went outside the door and just asked for help,” Holthoff said. Two security guards had to assist her. 

When Holthoff took Allison back to the waiting room, he said she was no longer able to sit in the wheelchair the hospital had provided because of the pain she was in, so she ended up lying on the floor.

“I told the nurses and the lady at the desk there a couple of times, ‘It is getting worse,’ and nothing happened,” he said. “So the security guards, in time, they brought a couple blankets out and they brought us a cup of water and I used it to put some ice on her lips.”

As more time passed, Allison told her husband she felt like she was dying. He approached the nurses a few more times. 

Around 3 p.m., the couple were taken to a room with a bed, but no medical equipment. Holthoff said he had to help Allison use a bedpan and used paper towel from a roll on the wall to clean up. 

“At some point there, she was getting worse and she started to scream out in pain,” he said.

A nurse came in and checked Allison’s blood pressure again, and saw it was alarmingly low. Holthoff said that’s when things started to change and the care became more urgent.

When they finally saw a doctor, they still hadn’t received any test results. Then, as the nurses prepped Allison for an X-ray, Holthoff said he watched as her condition worsened — she was in so much pain she couldn’t breathe. He tried to comfort her, and assured her the doctors would determine what was causing her pain.

“The next thing is [her] eyes rolled back in her head and her chest started rising. Something started beeping,” he said. “The next thing you hear is over the PA, ‘code blue, code blue in X-ray.'”

Holthoff said the room flooded with people, while he was sent to the hallway. A doctor later told him they resuscitated Allison three times — to no avail.

“Even if she would have survived at that point … she had too long a time without sufficient blood flow to the brain and vital organs. It would have been not a life worth living,” he said.

Since that day, Holthoff said he feels left in the dark. The results of Allison’s autopsy haven’t been released and he hasn’t heard from anyone in government except his local MLA.

He said the health-care system failed his wife and he doesn’t want her death to be in vain.

“We need change, the system is obviously broken. Or if it’s not broken yet, it’s not too far off,” Holthoff said. “Something needs to improve. I don’t want anybody else to go through this.”

“I want a spot where if my kids break their legs, we can take them to the hospital if anything happens.”

‘The most amazing person’

Allison Holthoff, 37, was mother of three school-aged children. She was also the deputy chief and treasurer of the Tidnish Bridge Fire Department. Her obituary said she won a volunteer of the year award for her work organizing community events like pancake breakfasts and the annual children’s Christmas party.

“She was the most amazing person I’ve ever known,” Holthoff said. “She was great and everybody could get a helping hand out of her. If they needed help with anything, she was there for you.”

A celebration of life was held at the local community centre on Friday, and Holthoff said the turnout was overwhelming. 

“I didn’t even know she impacted so many people,” he said. 

“I’ve never seen that centre so packed, I haven’t seen so many people there in the 10-plus years that I’ve been here.”

The question on Holthoff’s mind now is whether his wife would still be alive if she had received treatment quickly on New Year’s Eve.

Holthoff said he doesn’t blame the staff at the hospital for what happened, but he blames the system.

A problem with the system

Holthoff approached his local MLA, Elizabeth Smith-McCrossin, for help after his wife’s death.

On Jan. 6, Smith-McCrossin wrote an open letter to provincial Health Minister Michelle Thompson, asking for an “urgent investigation” into the situation. The letter said a request to meet earlier in the week had been denied. 

“The government doesn’t seem to pay any attention,” Holthoff said. “I don’t know what needs to happen, if some of them need to be turned away at an emergency room before something happens, or how many more people need to die. It’s just a shame.”

CBC News asked Nova Scotia Health how many deaths had occurred in emergency departments in 2022, but the department would not say. 

Spokesperson Christine Smith would also not comment on Allison Holthoff’s death, citing privacy rules.

“Each time there is a serious reportable event involving someone who has had contact with the health-care system within NSHA, a quality review is conducted,” Smith said in an emailed statement.

Smith-McCrossin said she is still pushing to meet with the health minister.

“That is why we’re requesting an investigation, so that family has those answers,” she said. “They’ve heard nothing from anyone in government and the challenge is because they’re not hearing anything, it’s getting more and more upsetting.”

“I’m hearing from hundreds of people in the community asking, ‘Why is nothing being said? Why is nothing being done?'”

ER conditions ‘not ideal’

Smith-McCrossin said health-care workers have also been contacting her about the working conditions at the hospital.

“I hear from people on a regular basis upset about the long wait times and the concern about the conditions in the ER,” she said. 

“Our ER flooded in May, so there’s been a temporary ER set up in ambulatory care, which is very challenging for our health-care workers to work in.”

Last week following a cabinet meeting, Thompson told reporters that the flood prompted Nova Scotia Health to relocate the emergency room “really quickly and unexpectedly.”

She acknowledged that the temporary emergency room setup is causing challenges.

“We know that those conditions are not ideal,” Thompson said. “They’re in a bit of a tough spot right now and we’re working with them, knowing that we will make improvements there in the future.”

She said a redevelopment plan is in the design phase and she could not share a timeline for the project yet.

For his part, Holthoff said he has a clear message for government.

“The health-care system in Cumberland County, and probably the whole province, needs major, major improvement in any way.”