Sean

Siblings, Sean and Andrea, along with Andrea’s husband Alex and their daughter lived together.  One evening, about two months after Andrea’s death, Sean stumbled into the living room obviously hallucinating and not recognizing his brother-in-law.  An ambulance was immediately called and Sean was taken to the Emergency.  Sean’s parents quickly joined him there.

Over the next several hours, Sean continued to experience hallucinations every two or three hours lasting about 15 minutes.  Neurology and Psychiatry were consulted.  Sean’s mother explained to every consulting doctor that Sean’s sister had recently died after experiencing similar symptoms and that it was critical that the medical team approach to her son’s condition as extremely serious, even life-threatening.

Sean was transferred to an open bed in the Psychiatric unit for observation.  Over the next several days Sean’s mother and family advocated for an aggressive investigation into a medical cause of Sean’s symptoms – they asked the hospital to consult with the doctors who had cared for Andrea as well as the Medical Examiner’s office (which was still studying Andrea’s case).

Meanwhile, Sean’s condition worsened.  His hallucinations were now lasting from 30-60 minutes and were occurring about every one-to-two hours.

Early on his 5th day in hospital Sean’s family wrote a letter to the hospital’s Patient Advocate Office and hand forwarded a copy to the Provincial Minister of Health requesting immediate medical evacuation to a major Neurology center. Based on his sister’s case, the family was desperate to get the help and diagnosis he needed. 

The same day the letter was submitted, the hospital broadened the investigation and metabolic testing was done by one of the many disciplines that immediately became involved that day.