Kelly Ashton died after falling twice in long-term care. Her family seeks justice for what they allege is a wrongful death.
Kelly Ashton was 62 when she died in a Prince George hospice on Dec. 1. Her official cause of death was natural causes, but her son Jason Keller and daughter Santaya Garnot are alleging their mother’s death was wrongful.
Meanwhile the family’s pursuit of answers and accountability has been complicated by British Columbia’s wrongful death laws, which limit their options for legal recourse. In the case of wrongful deaths, families in B.C. can sue individuals and entities they believe are at fault on their loved one’s behalf.
“What that basically says is that if you are not a breadwinner, with young children, your life is worthless,” said Michael-James Pennie, president of the BC Wrongful Death Law Reform Society. “That means that anyone who does not meet that discriminatory criteria has no legislative protection under the law.”
That afternoon, Ashton complained of head pain. She fell again in the early evening. Staff found her on her hands and knees in front of a yellow caution sign placed on the hallway floor around 6:20 p.m., the report said. There was a second large and bruising bump on her head. Shortly after she was admitted to the University Hospital of Northern British Columbia in Prince George, doctors diagnosed her with a concussion and two fractured vertebrae in her neck.
The society has advocated for families to be able to sue for broader and more significant damages if their loved ones die wrongfully, including seeking punitive damages and compensation for the pain and suffering of their loved ones and surviving family. “You feel like you’re talking about someone who scraped their knee, but you’re talking about a person dying,” said Garnot.
But things changed, Keller and Garnot said, when Buron Healthcare made staffing changes in the summer of 2020. They say the units began to seem understaffed and a new care director was put in place. “If she’s angry or she’s not eating, you don’t just give up,” Keller said. “But it seemed they didn’t have enough staff to take the time to make sure she got fed and [had her teeth] brushed.”
In 2018 Mackenzie’s office found seniors living in facilities operated privately rather than run by the health authority, such as the Simon Fraser Lodge where Ashton lived, are 34 per cent more likely to be hospitalized and 54 per cent more likely to die in hospital than their peers in health authority-run facilities.
Thomson declined to comment on Ashton’s case, citing privacy concerns, but said, “Simon Fraser Lodge has a falls reduction program which includes a post assessment performed by the nurse after a fall.” The investigation summary prepared by Buron Healthcare staff on both falls makes several recommendations, including removing potential slipping and tripping hazards from the hallway and reviewing when wet floor signs are used in the special care unit where Ashton lived.
‘A burning sense of injustice’ B.C.’s wrongful death laws are unique in Canada, and recent advocacy from families who allege their loved ones died wrongfully have brought renewed attention to limited options for families to sue and seek accountability. When would-be clients in similar situations to Keller and Garnot come to his Burnaby office for representation to begin a lawsuit, they are shocked the law doesn’t allow them to sue for significant damages or sue at all.
“We completely understand the grief and the anger and the need for a recognition of what happened to Natasha and to people who find themselves in a similar situation,” read a statement from the Ministry of Justice at the time. “That’s why we believe in a need for reform in this area.” Pennie and Renaud say changes can’t come soon enough and must be informed by the experiences of grieving families.
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