BARRIE, Ont. — A Midland nurse on trial for disconnecting a patient’s life support testified she asked the doctors, nurses and her team leader, but “nobody” told her there was a hospital policy for end-of-life procedures. Nurse Joanna Flynn, 51, admitted she is the one who disconnected Deanna Leblanc’s life support without authority, but has pleaded not guilty to manslaughter and criminal negligence causing death.
Leblanc, 39, a wife and mother of two, went into cardiac arrest in the middle of the night and was resuscitated several times before being put on a ventilator at the Midland hospital on March 2, 2014. Doctors have testified she might have been severely brain damaged because due to a lack of oxygen, but that it was too early to make any decisions because sedating medication could affect her brain activity.
An expert also testified that nurses have “no role” in the decision.
Flynn gave a different version of the story on Tuesday. “I asked other staff if we had any policies in place on end-of-life decisions and no one was aware of any,” Flynn testified.
“Miss Flynn, why didn’t you get a doctor’s order before removing life support?” asked her lawyer, Samantha Peeris. “I didn’t believe I needed an order,” Flynn answered. She explained she followed guidelines of the Ontario College of Nurses, which stated the decision must be made by a substitute decision maker — which was the patient’s husband, Mike Leblanc.
“I was legally obligated to follow the husband’s wishes,” Flynn testified. “He told me he wanted to go through with it.” She noted that the College guidelines no longer exist and suddenly disappeared from the Internet after Leblanc died.
Crown attorney Bhavna Bhangu asked Flynn how she could have had enough time to understand the husband’s wishes, when she disconnected life support only 75 minutes after she met him.
“What did you know of this husband’s stress level, whether or not he was in shock, his emotional level?” asked Crown attorney Bhavna Bhangu. “Did you ask him when he last slept?” “No,” answered Flynn. “Did you ask him when he last had a meal?” “No I did not,” answered Flynn.
Earlier, the husband, Mike Leblanc, wept as he testified he was devastated when Flynn told him that if she didn’t shut off life support his wife’s heart would “explode,” or “blow up.”
The trial continues.
By: TRACY MCLAUGHLIN
Source: cnews.canoe.com
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