Sudbury, Ont., family traumatized after hospital said loved one had been released, when in fact they had passed away

Sudbury resident Angela Vitiello says a staff member at Health Sciences North told her that her brother, Allan St. Martin, was released from the hospital late last month when, in fact, he had passed away.

The hospital has since apologized for the tragic mistake, but the family wants the public to know something like this could happen to anyone.

Allan St. Martin went into cardiac arrest Nov. 29 and died in Health Sciences North in Sudbury. But a clerk told the family he had been released. (Lyndsay Aelick/CTV News)

Vitiello said she began looking for her brother Nov. 30 when St. Martin's daughter sent her a message asking if she had heard from her dad.

The father and daughter had plans to get together that day, but her niece said he wasn't answering his phone or answering his door.

When a check by the building's superintendent confirmed St. Martin wasn't in his apartment, Vitiello told her niece to call HSN. Her brother, a diabetic, would sometimes go there when suffering complications.

Her niece called, only to be told St. Martin wasn't there. Vitiello called herself and said she dealt with a rude clerk who complained she was "the ninth person that had called" about St. Martin.

At the same time, Vitiello's husband happened to check the messages on their home phone and noticed there was a message from a Dr. Caruso asking Vitiello to call him at the HSN emergency department.

"I then called again and then got the same clerk on the phone. This time she told me to stop calling there," Vitiello said.

"(I) explained to her that I received a call from Dr. Caruso. That call came in at 2:30 in the morning. By now it's about 2 p.m."

She told the clerk that she needed to find out why Caruso had called.

Told that 'he had been released'

"She then proceeded to tell me that my brother had been at the ER, but he had been released,” Vitiello said.

They were at the point of filing a missing persons report with police when they received yet another call from another doctor at HSN.

The doctor told her that "my brother had come in by ambulance on Friday evening complaining of shortness of breath that he had gone into cardiac arrest," Vitiello said.

"They had shocked his heart twice, unsuccessfully, and that he had passed."

To make matters worse, the family went to the hospital where they were told the morgue was closed and were given a number to call for patient relations.

"I don't understand how a morgue can have business hours," Vitiello said.

Sudbury resident Angela Vitiello says a staff member at Health Sciences North told her that her brother, Allan St. Martin, was released from the hospital late last month when, in fact, he had passed away. (Lyndsay Aelick/CTV News)

'Shock and disbelief'

"My niece was in shock and disbelief that her father had passed. It would have been helpful for her to have seen him or to have been able to say goodbye … We couldn't even retrieve any of his belongings. Even to have received his belongings would have given us confirmation that it was him and that wasn't allowed."

CTV News contacted HSN for comment and received a statement from spokesperson Jason Turnbull. Turnbull said they couldn't comment on specific cases.

"When we receive complaints, our leadership team conducts a thorough exam of the patient’s care and experience to understand what happened, what gaps may exist, and plans are developed to address those gaps to ensure the care we provide is up to the standards we set out as an organization," the statement said.

"We deeply apologize to anyone who has a negative experience at HSN and encourage them to contact our patient relations team who helps to support patients and families through the complaint process."

Extremely apologetic

Vitiello said the person she spoke with at patient relations was extremely apologetic.

"She had told me that the breakdown in communication, there were issues where policy and training needed to be addressed," she said.

"Apparently the clerk who answered the phone at the emergency department did not know how to read the code, so she had misled us to believe he had been released when he was indeed in the morgue."

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When asked why she is sharing her story, Vitiello said it’s important for the public to know this could happen to anyone.

"I know just from the Facebook post feed that this is not isolated," she said.

"It shouldn't happen to anyone. I think it's important for people at the hospital to have compassion and care. This is what we rely on. This is what we expect and I think they need to do better."

Vitiello said she hopes by sharing her story that something will change as she said the health care system is "incredibly broken."