Manitoba health bodies face 2 more lawsuits after man killed parents, stabbed hospital employee

A nursing supervisor who was stabbed at Winnipeg's Seven Oaks General Hospital in 2021 by a man later found not criminally responsible for a string of attacks has, along with another hospital employee, filed additional lawsuits against Manitoba health bodies exactly two years later, alleging authorities failed to protect them.

The two separate lawsuits, filed at the Manitoba Court of King's Bench on Friday, came days after one was filed by family members of Trevor Farley, 39.

Each claim that Manitoba health authorities breached a duty of care by failing to provide adequate treatment to Farley, who repeatedly sought help for mental illness before killing his parents and stabbing Candyce Szkwarek, 67.

Szkwarek and Lori Schellenberg, a renal services manager at Seven Oaks, are now suing for general damages relating to their injuries, as well as punitive and special damages, lost income and court costs, according to two statements of claim.

The defendants named in the suits are the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority and the Winnipeg-Churchill Health Region — the legal entities responsible for health-care services and facilities in Winnipeg — as well as the provincial health organization Shared Health.

None of the allegations have been tested in court and a statement of defence has not been filed.

Manitoba Court of King's Bench Justice Ken Champagne found Trevor Farley not criminally responsible due to a mental disorder earlier this month for killing his parents, Judy Swain and Stuart Farley, on Oct. 27, 2021.

Farley, who had resigned as a nurse at Seven Oaks days earlier, was also charged with attempted murder for stabbing his former supervisor, Szkwarek, several times at the hospital shortly after he killed his parents.

He was deemed a high-risk accused the next day — an extremely rare and exceptionally restrictive designation — after a team of experts who evaluated him found that Farley believed he was a prophet sent by God to "cut the contamination" out of his victims to save them.

Farley initially went to the Mental Health Crisis Response Centre — next to the Health Sciences Centre in Winnipeg — in an effort to seek assistance on or around Oct. 26, 2021, according to the statements of claim.

Procedure not followed: suit

He was assessed once in the early hours of Oct. 27, and a second time later that morning, when a physician at the centre completed what's known as a "Form 4," the suit says. The form permits an individual to be assessed at a psychiatric facility when they are either unwilling or unable to consent.

A person under a Form 4 is to be moved to a locked, secure room under constant supervision of staff if they are deemed to be at risk of harming themselves or someone else, the lawsuit says.

But Farley, who was experiencing hallucinations and intense suicidal thoughts, was not placed in a locked room for monitoring, despite established procedure, the suit says.

The Crisis Response Centre is not a locked facility, meaning that a person may be able to leave unless they're in a locked room, the suit says.

Farley left about three hours after the second assessment at the crisis centre took place around 9 a.m., and some point after the Form 4 was completed. Staff called 911 so police could look for him, according to the statement of claim.

As a Manitoba court heard earlier this month, Farley then went to the home of his father, Stuart Farley, on Toronto Street in Winnipeg, where he killed him. He then killed his mother, Judy Swain, at her home in New Bothwell, Man., shortly after.

Farley left hospital 'covered in blood': suit

Farley then sought mental health treatment once again, this time at Winnipeg's St. Boniface Hospital, while "still covered in blood from the killing of his parents," according to the suit. A nurse previously told investigators he had walked out about 15 minutes after arriving.

He then went back to the crisis response centre, but left again after realizing security had been called, the suit says. He drove to Seven Oaks Hospital in the city's northwest, where he stabbed Szkwarek about 20 times.

Farley was tackled by a doctor, who chased him to just outside the hospital, where he was taken into police custody, according to the statement of claim.

Seven Oaks staff began to treat Szkwarek for her injuries in the attack's immediate aftermath, slowing her blood loss before she was taken by ambulance to the Health Sciences Centre, where she received emergency surgery, the suit says.

She has undergone two more major surgeries since then, and has been told she will require at least one more, according to the suit.

Full recovery for Szkwarek 'unknown': suit

Szkwarek sustained significant stab wounds "over her entire body," the suit says. Her abdomen, internal organs and right arm were most seriously injured, resulting in nerve damage to her right arm, as well as renal failure that required two months of dialysis.

"It is unknown at this time if her right arm will ever make a full recovery. She continues to suffer from numbness, weakness, loss of sensation and loss of fine motor skills in her right arm and hand," the suit says.

Szkwarek has also suffered psychologically from the attack and has been unable to work since, losing income because of it, the suit says.

Schellenberg, one of the first people to respond to the attack, began to struggle with falling asleep, racing thoughts and feelings of nervousness within a week of the attack, her suit says.

"The scene was one of panic and chaos and a significant amount of blood was visible" in the attack's aftermath, Schellenberg's statement of claim says.

She was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and became unable to work around December 2021, making an unsuccessful return to work in March 2023, the suit says.

Szkwarek and Schellenberg's injuries and damages resulting from the attack were caused by the negligence of the defendants, who did not "take any reasonable steps to address the danger posed" by a person under a Form 4 leaving the crisis centre, according to the suits.

Shared Health and the WRHA both declined to comment to CBC News on Monday since the matter is before the courts.