Family of Manitoba woman who died waiting for heart surgery demands answers, proposes legislation
'Debbie's Law' would require patients be told if system can't provide timely life-saving surgery
Debbie Fewster's family says she was entering a sweet time in her life last summer, settling into retirement and making plans to spend more time with her grandchildren around the country.
By fall, she was dead at age 69, and her family is blaming what they say is a flawed health-care system that left her waiting too long for urgently needed heart surgery.
"We trusted the system to save her, but it failed her. And it's failing too many others," Fewster's son, Daniel, said at a news conference on Wednesday in Winnipeg.
Fewster's family, and a public policy advocacy group called SecondStreet.org, held the news conference to call on the provincial government to create legislation that better protects patients on waiting lists.
They're proposing legislation they've dubbed Debbie's Law, which would require that health authorities inform patients when life-saving treatment cannot be provided in a timely period, and discuss options for care outside of the province.
"Debbie's Law won't fix everything, but it will introduce something that is desperately needed, and that is radical honesty," said Colleen Dyck, one of Fewster's daughters.
She wants to see deaths of people on waiting lists tracked in order to better understand and fix the problem.
"We're here today because we refuse to let her loss be in vain. We pray that our voices will be heard."
Since being registered as a charitable organization in 2017, Second Street has compiled data on waiting list patients who have died and summarized that research in annual reports. It has promoted health-care reform, including conducting research on private health insurance and producing a video that explores the benefits of private health-care options.
According to Second Street, it has identified nearly 75,000 cases where patients died waiting for various surgeries and diagnostic scans since the 2018-19 fiscal year. It says the number is likely much higher because many jurisdictions don't track those deaths.
The Second Street reporting does not specify whether the death was related to the health condition the person was awaiting treatment for.
Second Street president Colin Craig says Nova Scotia has the best record for tracking the deaths of patients waiting for treatment, providing information in each case on what surgery was required and the length of wait before their death.
"Most other provinces do not do that, but others do provide more comprehensive data than what we find here in Manitoba. It's very difficult to get this data out of Manitoba," said Craig, a former Prairies director with the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, at Wednesday's news conference.
The organization that oversees the delivery of health care in Manitoba said Wednesday the province's new surgical waitlist information management system, also known as SWIM, tracks all surgeries and procedures in the public system, with the exception of cardiac surgeries, which are managed within the cardiac program at St. Boniface Hospital.
In a statement to CBC News, Shared Health said while the SWIM system logs the number of patients who die while on a surgical waitlist, it does not keep track of whether the death was related to the reason for the planned surgery.
'She trusted the process'
Fewster, a mother of three and grandmother of 10, told her family in July 2024 that her doctor was concerned about her heart, Daniel said.
She went for a stress test in August, and "the results were so serious they called her back that night," he said.
Fewster was told she needed an echocardiogram to find a blockage and that surgery would be required within three weeks. Her ECG on Aug. 22 showed extreme blockages that required a triple bypass, Daniel said.
"Up until then they had moved fast. They acted like they knew her life was on the line, and we trusted that they'd keep that pace," Daniel said.
But on Sept. 4, after speaking with a pre-op nurse, Fewster was told the surgery might come late that month or in early October. The system was catching up with summer delays caused by staffing shortages due to holidays, Daniel said.
Fewster died on Oct. 13.
"I can't describe the shock, the anger and the grief. Our family has been devastated," Daniel said.
"The only thing we've heard from the health authority since is we family got a bill for the ambulance that came that night. Not a word of explanation, not a call to say they're sorry, nothing about why they couldn't help her, even though they knew it was urgent."
Manitoba Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara told reporters at the legislature Wednesday they are open to looking over the proposed Debbie's Law, as well as any other alternatives to strengthen the health-care system.
"Anyone who passes away while waiting for any kind of care, that is a significant loss and something we don't want to see happening," the minister said, extending their condolences to Fewster's family.
Asagwara said the province is also working to boost cardiac services at St. Boniface Hospital, which was a promise the now governing NDP made during the 2023 election campaign.
But there are protocols already in place to prioritize patients who need life-saving care or critical intervention, including those with urgent cardiac needs, and ensure they can get care in Manitoba, Asagwara said.
Since Fewster's death, the family said they've been told by others who have navigated the health-care system they needed to push harder and be more demanding, Dyck said.
"Mom was not a squeaky wheel. She was patient, she trusted the process. She didn't want to cut in line or get in the way of anyone else's care," Dyck said.
"She needed advocates, and we thought we were doing that for her. We didn't realize that we were expected to fight and manipulate the system just to get the care she needed."
She referred to that system as a broken one where people are forced to compete for care, resulting in loss of life and eroded trust.
"Our mother's doctors did everything right. They expedited her care. And the system failed."
Had the family been informed that delays were likely, they would have done anything to pay for care elsewhere, said Daniel, even remortgaging their homes if necessary.
Transparency, accountability needed
Craig said while government inspectors regularly visit restaurants and publicly disclose infractions they find, that doesn't happen in the health-care system.
"We know about this story … the worst possible mistake the system could make, not because the system is accountable and discloses what happens, but because the family has been willing to speak out," he said.
The system causes harm, he said, by leading patients and families to believe that treatment is forthcoming in a timely manner when it isn't.
Debbie's Law is a solution that could help patients across Canada, "and it's one that political parties across the political spectrum should be able to get behind," Craig said, insisting he's not suggesting a two-tier health-care system.
Ideally, government would recognize that if they're taking taxpayer money to fund health care, but not fulfilling that role, they would look at covering those costs outside the province, he said.
"But what we're talking about is a much smaller ask. And that is for the system to be more honest."
The proposed law would require governments to meet the same high standard they set for private businesses to ensure public safety, Craig said.
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