‘Nobody did anything’: Man spent four hours in ER without seeing doctor, died next day, family wants justice

MONTREAL (CityNews) — The family of a young Black Montrealer who died after waiting hours to be treated in a hospital emergency waiting room — only to give up and leave — says systemic racism led to his death.

Akeem Scott, 26, died in June 2019 after waiting four hours to be treated at Montreal’s Jewish General Hospital, spending some of that time lying on the floor in agonizing pain.

Tired of waiting, Scott left the emergency and went to a friend’s house. The next day, he was found vomiting blood and died shortly after.

Now family members and friends are demanding justice after a coroner’s report concluded Scott died of natural causes.

“It was negligence that they ignored him at the hospital,” said Marcia Samuels, Scott’s mother. “I don’t want this to happen to someone, to go through that kind of ordeal. He was very in pain in a fetal position, crying, and still they just ignored him like he was nothing.”

Added Malick Sangaré, the friend who accompanied Scott to the hospital: “Akeem’s pain was like enormous because he was in a wheelchair, right, because he had to lie down on the floor curled up into a ball and that irritated the staff at some point, because I remember them coming and telling him, ‘look, you can’t be in that position.’”

Handout photo of Akeem Scott provided by the family. (Credit: Lloyd Allison/HO)

The coroner’s report noted Scott’s pain was 10 out of 10. He was brought by ambulance to the hospital, throwing up with abdominal pain.

He was then placed in level three in triage, which means it’s urgent and the wait time should be 30 minutes at the most, according to the coroner. But Scott waited four hours.

“The level of care, or the lack of care, it’s neglect,” said Fo Niemi of the Center for Research-Action on Race Relations (CRARR). “And also the lack of humanity, it’s not something that doctors and nurses are supposed to do.

“But obviously in this case, this young man was like that in pain for four hours. If we’re talking about two hours, we can understand. But four hours and nobody saw anything, nobody did anything.

“That’s very suspect and strange. The coroner’s report didn’t say much about that.”

The coroner concluded Scott died of acute peritonitis: inflammation of a silk-like membrane that lines the inner abdominal wall and covers the organs within the abdomen.

In a statement to CityNews, the coroner said “Mr. Scott’s death is a natural death, as the source is acute peritonitis. It cannot be suicide, an accident or homicide, which are the other modes of death.

“Emergency wait times can sometimes be long due to traffic and priority codes are mostly guidelines.”

Handout photo of Akeem Scott provided by the family. (Credit: Lloyd Allison/HO)

But the family and advocates at CRARR say it is a clear-cut case of systemic racism.

“But when you read many of the facts fathered by the coroner in the four-page report, we don’t believe it was a natural death,” said Niemi. “He was basically left unattended and uncared for, for four hours.”

The coroner’s report recommended the Jewish General Hospital review its triage and re-evaluation procedures. A hospital spokesperson said they could not comment on the case due to privacy and confidentiality rules.

“We want to make sure the system changes and that this doesn’t happen to anyone else,” said Lloyd Allison, Scott’s brother. “We do feel he was neglected for the way he looked, he wasn’t taken seriously and that led to his death ultimately.”

Scott’s family is remembering the 26-year-old fondly.

“He was a good son,” said Samuels. “Everyone that knew him loved him. He would do anything for you. You could send him anywhere, he would never say no. He would go right away. This is very sad that this happened to him when he could have been saved if he was just given some help.”

Added Allison: “I’m going to miss him forever.”