Half a decade after an Ontario hospital administrator tried to “downplay” the “gross medication error” that may have contributed to the death of Gerhard Deinas, it has come back to haunt the health system.
In a significant health secrecy case that has recently come to the fore in Ontario, reports show a hospital chief of staff “misled” an elderly widow about her husband’s unexpected death and downplayed the role of the medical mistake that may have killed him.
Over the past five years, Josh Anstett has fought against Grand River Hospital authorities to find the truth behind his grandfather’s death — a crusade that has exposed major flaws in the provincial health law that shrouds critical hospital mistakes.
In June 2010, Deinas, 85, was admitted to Grand River with a non-life-threatening bowel obstruction.
When he died the next day after an accidental narcotics overdose, his family wanted answers.
Instead of clearly outlining the gravity of the medication error, Grand River chief of staff Dr. Ashok Sharma “misled” the family by saying the mistake did not play a role in Deinas’ death, according to a College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario complaints committee decision obtained by the Star.