Family of young Black Montrealer who died after seeking help at an ER, want nurses held accountable

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 — asked for a formal revision of a decision by the Quebec Order of Nurses not to hold the nurses involved accountable. They say systemic racism led to his death.

Akeem Scott, 26, died in June 2019, after spending several hours at the Jewish General Hospital’s ER, waiting for hours to receive urgent medical care.

“Despite severe stomach pain and vomiting and being given a level 3 priority code (requiring care within 30 minutes). He left the hospital after four hours of waiting and died afterwards at his friend’s home,” says the family in a press release by the Center for Research-Action on Race Relations (CRARR).

“Scott’s family blamed his death on the attending nurses’ failure to provide proper care while at the ER and a private security guard for his failure to seek help for Scott when the latter had to lie down on the floor to ease the pain and was told by the guard to sit up or leave,” continues the release.

“In its dismissal of the complaint filed in 2021 by Marcia Samuels, Mr. Scott’s mother, the Order stated that the nurses cannot be blamed for the fact that the reality of the ER makes it difficult to provide medical care within the time limits set by the triage scale.”

The Quebec Order of Nurses, tells CityNews in an email that they cannot comment on the family’s request.

“I miss him so much, everyday is like I am waiting for him to call me to say, ‘Hey mom’… I’m not hearing nothing. I just want to know what happened to my kid, why didn’t they treat him when he went to the hospital and was in so much pain,” said Marcia Samuels, Scott’s mother on Friday.

“It’s been very hard for me. Very painful. He was such a good kid. And to know he’s not here anymore, it really hurts everyday.”

“We just want to know the truth because it’s like we’re living in a nightmare each and every single day, just missing and missing and missing him. It just really hurts a lot.”

“There was no humanity, they allowed him to stay there in pain for many hours. No pain medication, no nothing. They asked him to get off the floor at one point when he was writhing on the ground in pain. That itself was one of the reasons why he got up and left, he wasn’t treated fairly,” said Scott’s brother Lloyd Allison.

In 2021, Samuels filed a complaint with the Quebec Order of Nurses, accusing the attending nurse the night here son was there – of misconduct and negligence. The order conducted an investigation, the findings submitted to Samuels on May 10, 2023. She shared a copy with CityNews. It indicates that Scott was a ‘level 3 priority’ code which meant he should’ve received a medical evaluation within 30 minutes. The family says Scott left the hospital after four hours of waiting for care and believe systemic racism played a role in his lack of care.

“We were unable to confirm or deny whether your son’s race may have influenced his care. However, the head nurse assures us that the nurses involved in your son’s care are not known to have such biases. Considering the above, we do not intend to lodge a complaint with the Disciplinary Council,” states the report from the order.

“That’s not very normal and this is why the family, I believe, has the right to be angry,” said Fo Niemi, executive director of CRARR.

“We believed this was wrong and we’re going to the end of the world with this until we have a resolution,” said Allison.