Discrimination not a factor in hospital's refusal to treat black man who died hours later: SHA

The Saskatchewan Health Authority has asked the province’s superior trial court to dismiss a civil suit launched by the family of a young football player who was found dead just hours after he was denied treatment at Regina General Hospital. The health authority, which apologized last year for the death of Samwel Uko, also stated that discrimination was not a factor in how the hospital treated Uko, who was Black. In its statement of defence, the SHA admitted it, “failed to meet the standard of care as it failed to provide the necessary follow-up care and assessment” when Uko, who was just 20 years old when his body was found in Wascana Lake, showed up at the hospital on May 21, 2020. The SHA said in its statement that it had paid Uko’s family $81,357 under a section of Saskatchewan's Fatal Accidents Act that covers areas such as funeral expenses and grief counselling. In requesting a dismissal of the civil suit, the SHA argued that parts of the family’s claim—which seeks general or special damages as well as punitive or exemplary damages—are not pursuable under current laws. Uko, who came to Canada with his family in 2005 from what is now South Sudan, was with the University of Saskatchewan’s Huskies football team for a season before he moved to B.C., where he was a star running back for the Abbottsford Panthers and later signed on with the Langley Rams, part of the Canadian Junior Football League. While visiting an aunt in Regina in May 2020, Uko started to hear voices and seemed paranoid, according to family members. He went to the emergency room at Regina General Hospital on the morning of May 21 and, after being seen by healthcare staff, was sent home with a follow-up referral at a mental health clinic. Just before 6:00 pm that day, Uko was taken by police back to the emergency room. After about 45 minutes, and without being seen by medical staff, Uko was dragged out of the hospital by four security guards. A video shows him pleading with the security guards to leave him alone and telling them he has mental health issues. In another video, which Uko took of himself and posted to Snapchat, he says repeatedly that he needs help. "Samwel was urged to go back to the emergency room if he felt worse," according to the statement of claim filed on behalf of Uko’s family by The Merchant Law Group. "However, when he did feel worse and had the police take him to the emergency room, he was not given the proper care he needed." Instead he was escorted out of the building by security, the statement of claim noted. "The fact the Samwel was escorted [to the hospital] by police on the second occasion emphasized his mental deterioration from earlier that day," it further stated. "This rejection by the medical staff might have been the straw that broke the proverbial camel's back." The SHA’s statement of defence said that Uko had denied having suicidal ideations during his first visit to the hospital. After he was released, he spoke to the mental health clinic referred by the hospital “and again denied having any suicidal ideations,” wrote the SHA. Hospital staff had problems confirming Uko's identity, said the SHA. “That, in turn, caused or contributed to the failure of the SHA to provide access to Mr. Uko to obtain the additional care and assessment that he may have required." A coroner’s inquest into the circumstances of Uko’s death–which is believed to have been the result of suicide—is scheduled to take place in Regina starting September 20.

Discrimination not a factor in hospital's refusal to treat black man who died hours later: SHA

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