Speech for Candlelight Vigil June 12/13

I would like to welcome everyone who came out to support Joshua. Your support is greatly appreciated and means more than you can imagine. You would think that time would take away the pain of losing Joshua but it has only made it worse. I miss him everyday 24/7 and get angrier with each passing day. My faith has been shaken, after all what kind of God would do this. If there is a reason for taking him I hope it is to insure that changes are made to protocols in our hospitals and mistakes like the ones made in Josh’s care do not happen to anyone else. 

Joshua was medically cleared on June 6 by the internest in emerg even though his ammonia levels were starting to rise again, he was prescribed Haldol by two different doctors twice on the same day even though they were told specifically by Poison Control not to give him this drug. I am certain this is what caused him to go crazy and end up taking 8 people to hold him down and physically and chemically restrain him. When I asked the doctor what happened all I was told was “his levels started going up and we don’t know why, maybe he had a psychotic event or possibly the fact that he drank 6 beers 48 hours before and he was having alcohol withdrawal caused it” Anybody who knew Joshua, knows he was not dependant on alcohol but rather a binge drinker. He would go for a couple of weeks without drinking and then drink for 24 hours straight. Then not drink again for another couple of weeks so I do not believe he had ethanol withdrawal at all. Joshua had never had a psychotic event in his life like this where he did not know who he was or where he was and hallucinating like crazy. She knew exactly what had happened. They gave him Haldol which is a very bad anti psychotic and it interacted with the other drugs in his system, also complicated by the rising ammonia levels which were left unchecked by the first doctor. 
From the moment he landed in ICU he had all the signs of DVT or in layman’s terms blood clot and nobody bothered to check him for this. Blood clots can be detected and dealt with and Josh’s death could have been prevented. This was clearly missdiagnosed by the doctor. At one point this same doctor wrote in one of her letters to the College that she did not recall Joshua being restrained. However after I sent her a picture of this miraculously she found some missing records that showed this. These are just a few examples of what I know to be true in Josh’s case. 

Joshua suffered from emotional an mental disorder from the time of his early teens. I recognised this as I myself have suffered with this most of my life. Unfortunately I passed this horrible affliction on to him. I tried for 10 years to get him proper help with this so he would not have to suffer as I did. Finally I was able to get him in with a psychiatrist at this hospital. I do believe this psychiatrist had good intentions and truly was concerned for Joshua. Joshua was under his care from 2007 and seemed for the most part to be doing better. Six months before Josh passed he was prescribed :”Abilify’ which I personally believe led to his attempt at suicide as this was never an issue with him before. I want to make clear that although he took the overdose , he did not want to die but really just wanted help. I have become aware that pharmaceutical companies give kickbacks to doctors for prescribing their drugs so be very careful. I would advise anyone who is prescribed anti depressants or anti psychotics to be vigilant and try to find out as much about the drug you are taking for your own good. I believed I had done the right thing by getting Josh into the so called experts for help and have been devastated to learn that he was taken by the ones that were supposed to help him.

I always believed that we could trust that doctors would always be careful and do whatever they could to ensure proper care of our loved ones. Sadly I have been rudely awakened to the fact that this is just not so. My trust in them is gone forever. Fortunately I got Josh’s records within 6 days of his death and found out just how many things were done wrong in his case by not one but three doctors and one nurse. Interestingly enough there seems to be a few records missing even though I was told I had everything.

Naturally I was very angry when I read the records and found out just how incompetent his care was and proceeded to contact several lawyers only to be told that, Yes you can sue them but the chances of getting anywhere with it are very slim and it would cost far more than you could hope to recover if you are lucky enough to win. This is due to the CMPA Canadian Medical Protection Association whom are the lawyers that represent the doctors in malpractice cases. What I was not aware of is that our tax dollars are largely responsible for funding them. This means that my tax dollars are used to fight me in a lawsuit. This association has billions of dollars in reserve and will keep you in court for years and spend whatever it takes to stop you from winning. They hope you will run out of funds and give up which most people do. Also our government puts a cap on what a person can sue for, which means your life is worth very little to our government.

The only other thing that you can do is complain to the College of Physicians and Surgeons regarding the doctor or doctors in question. I currently have complaints against three doctors and two coroners with the college. I also have a complaint with the nurses college regarding one nurse. 

This has been going on for almost a year and I am still waiting for a decision from them. But bear in mind that even though I have a lot of proof in the records that they were incompetent and negligent in Josh’s care the ones making these decisions are also doctors and do not have a good reputation with the public in disciplining doctors in these cases. Myself and many others who have been through this believe it is time for our government to set up an independent board to deal with malpractice cases so it is fair and just to all concerned. 

If you or I did this to anyone we would be in jail facing negligence charges. But our government gives the doctors a license to harm and kill with practically no accountability. 

I have sent in a complaint to the chief Ontario coroner’s office as well and he is investigating this for me. I have requested an inquest for Josh and I am still waiting for his decision. An inquest does not assign blame but it is used to make changes to ensure these things do not happen to other people. This is so important and I hope you will pray for this to happen. 

I urge all of you to be vigilant and ask questions if you or a loved one is hospitalized as so many people are harmed or killed in our hospitals every year without us being aware of it. If you have any concerns about the care of yourself or loved ones you should obtain your records. They cannot refuse you. 

I only want justice for my son who was taken away far too young. He did not want to die but just wanted help with his suffering. Josh’s death was not his fault, it was due to the negligence and carelessness of the doctors involved in his care. I know there are good doctors but the bad ones are protected and we must demand that this changes. I have spoken with many people who have had similar experiences with themselves or loved ones and did not bother to do anything about it. If this happens to you I urge you to get your records and make a complaint against whoever is responsible. This is the only way things will change. If you don’t complain those responsible just keep on harming others. 

I would now like to play Josh’s favourite song. If you listen to the words you will see just how much it sounds like Josh. He was “Mr Fantasy”.