Dr. Laidley is a senior resident, and Dr. Sellens is an emergency medicine specialist. They asserted that they acted reasonably in Coville’s care and that her bacterial pneumonia developed rapidly and could not have been reasonably foreseen.
Factual findings
The parties brought the matter to the Ontario Superior Court of Justice to determine the applicable standard of care, whether the doctors breached it on December 24, and if this breach caused Coville’s death.
After carefully examining and weighing the evidence on the balance of probabilities, the court accepted the evidence pointing to the fact that Coville was “non-distressed while at the emergency department on December 24 and that she was not in respiratory distress. Her respiratory triage was considered to be within the normal level. The court also said no credible and reliable evidence established that Coville was having breathing problems or shortness of breath while at the emergency department on December 24.
The court noted that Coville’s condition improved after receiving treatment in the emergency department, and her heart rate decreased. The court found that Coville’s condition remained “essentially unchanged” from when she was discharged and returned home in the afternoon of December 24 until the afternoon of December 25, a short time before she returned to the emergency department that day. Witnesses observed that something went “really wrong,” “she started coughing and gasping for air,” “she was panicked,” and “she couldn’t catch her breath.”
Standard of care
The court acknowledged that the standard of care required of Dr. Laidley and Dr. Sellens is “of a normal, competent, and prudent emergency medicine physician, practising in the emergency department of an urban community in 2012.”