Manitoba man ‘might still be here’ if not for alleged hospital negligence, family says | CBC News

The family of a Manitoba man who suffered a series of medical problems in 2020 and died earlier this month believes negligence in the health-care system led to his disability and untimely death.

Timothy Elke, 55, died on May 5 at Health Sciences Centre (HSC) in Winnipeg, but his sister and mother say they wonder if he would still be around if he’d had better health care.

“It shouldn’t have ever happened. If doctors had done their job in the first place, he might still be here,” Elke’s sister Tammy Davis said in an interview alongside her mother, Jean Elke, on Tuesday.

“If this has taught anybody anything, it should be that our health-care system kind of sucks right now, and unfortunately my brother had to pay for it with his life.”

Elke — who was from Amaranth, Man., a community about 140 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg — filed a lawsuit over his care in November 2022 in Manitoba’s Court of King’s Bench.

He alleged his bowel was perforated during surgery to remove a blockage from his bile duct in 2020, and the doctors who treated him were negligent in his followup care.

A statement of defence hasn’t been filed, and the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority hasn’t responded to a request for comment.

‘It’s not right,’ sister says

Elke’s lawsuit alleged that shortly after being discharged following his surgery in 2020, he went to the emergency room in Portage la Prairie, a city about 85 kilometres west of Winnipeg, because of extreme abdominal pain.

A CT scan revealed he had a possible hole in his small intestine or bowel, the lawsuit said.

That same day, Elke was rushed to HSC, where he was diagnosed with sepsis and pancreatitis, as well as a possible secondary infection in the area behind the tissue that lines the abdominal wall and covers most of the organs.

He was admitted to the surgical intensive care unit at HSC, given antibiotics and monitored, but over the next few days, his condition deteriorated, the lawsuit said.

Three weeks after the initial surgery to remove the blockage in his bile duct, Elke had another major surgery to connect his stomach to the middle part of his small intestine and a tube was placed in another part of his small intestine, where there were serious perforations, the lawsuit alleged.

He suffered kidney failure, a pulmonary embolism, mobility issues and psychological and emotional trauma in the two years after his surgery, the lawsuit said.

“They could’ve done something sooner and they didn’t, and Tim had to suffer for it. It’s not right,” Davis added, referring to the perforations in Elke’s bowel and the subsequent surgery delay.

In the years prior to the bowel perforation, Elke had another issue with his care. 

Davis said a piece of her brother’s gallbladder was accidentally left in his body when he went in for surgery to have it removed at the hospital in Portage la Prairie, but it only came to light in November 2020 when he went to HSC for severe pain.

CBC News requested a comment from the Southern Health Authority, which is responsible for the Portage la Prairie hospital, but didn’t receive a response.

Worsening condition

Elke was hospitalized for the majority of the time from the 2020 surgery until his death and had to undergo dialysis regularly, Davis said. She said her brother was constantly fighting serious infections during that time.

“He had a rough last two and a half years,” she said. “He was basically skin and bones [by the end].”

During the first week of May, after Elke underwent dialysis at Dauphin General Hospital, he went to the emergency room because he was short of breath and had a worsening infection.

Two days later, his mother received a call that the antibiotics weren’t working, that he was dying and there was nothing staff could do for him, Davis said.

The family had Elke transferred to HSC, where staff had knowledge of his case, “even though they had a hand in messing things up for him. It was still the better place to go,” Davis said.

He died there on May 5. 

Elke’s lawyer Derek Olson said the lawsuit is still before the courts and any damages granted by a judge would be transmitted to his client’s estate in light of his death.

Olson said he will be arguing his client would still be alive if he hadn’t experienced the alleged negligence.

“It’s a really tragic situation for someone so young to have something like this happen to him and under these circumstances. It’s a terrible thing,” he said in a phone call with CBC News on Tuesday.

‘An amazing soul’ lost

Davis said her family and others in their small central Manitoba town will remember her brother as a genuinely friendly person.

“Everyone in the area who has ever had the pleasure of interacting with Tim will know what an amazing soul he was. If he could help, he would,” his obituary said.

Before Elke became ill, he managed the local pawn shop and general store and was a volunteer firefighter.

Davis said her brother also treated her children — his nieces and nephews — as his own children.

“It’s going to leave a hole. He’s greatly missed. It doesn’t seem real yet,” she said.

Davis said she and her mother are seeking accountability from the doctors involved in Elke’s treatment.

“They need to admit when they’re wrong — admit that they had a part to play in his death,” she said.

“Maybe if the health authority and the doctors could learn something by this, that would be a good thing.… I don’t want to see somebody else have to go through the same thing he did.”