A Surrey father is advocating for significant reforms in the health care system following the sudden death of his son, 20-year-old Rowan Hamilton, a beloved former North Surrey football player, highlighting the urgent need for improved patient advocacy and accountability within the system.
Justin Hamilton, Rowan’s dad, held a rally in front of Surrey Memorial Hospital on Saturday (Nov. 29), calling on the Ministry of Health to implement several things, including a health care education program that teaches people how to advocate for themselves.
On Nov. 18, Rowan told his family that he was concerned about his rapid heart rate and breathing, so he went to urgent care, where he was then directed to go to the emergency room at Surrey Memorial Hospital.
He told the doctors that his family thought he might have pneumonia due to the symptoms he was experiencing. The doctor sent him for a lung X-ray.
After reviewing the X-ray, the doctor told Rowan he did not have pneumonia and prescribed him antibiotics. At this point, no diagnosis was given; only antibiotics and a hospital discharge.
Justin added that there was no further testing done to address the symptoms Rowan was experiencing, such as severe shortness of breath, a rapid heart rate, blurred vision, feeling nauseous and coughing up blood.
The next day, on Nov. 19, Rowan went back to work and collapsed shortly after starting his shift.
Paramedics transported him to Surrey Memorial Hospital, where he was kept for about 40 minutes with a LUCAS machine doing automatic chest compressions.
During that time, it took doctors 20 minutes to decide to call Royal Columbian, a level 1 trauma centre, and they “demanded that Rowan be rushed to them immediately,” Justin said.
Another 20 minutes later, he was loaded into the ambulance and taken to Royal Columbian Hospital in New Westminster.
While Rowan was on his way to the hospital, the doctors at Royal Columbian were reviewing his medical charts from Nov. 18. “They were able to determine that Rowan had pulmonary embolism, just by what they saw in the charts they received,” Justin said.
Upon arrival, Rowan was put on life support and sent for further testing, where they confirmed he had a pulmonary embolism. Which was something “that could have been determined at Surrey Memorial the day before,” Justin said.
He was admitted to the cardiac intensive care unit, where his condition worsened overnight. Doctors ordered another CT the next day, on Nov. 20, which “showed catastrophic brain failure and Rowan was pronounced officially brain dead at 2:21 p.m.”
REFORM TO THE HEALTH CARE SYSTEM
Justin said that he and his family are calling for a number of changes to the health care system to ensure this does not happen to someone else’s loved one.
One thing he wanted to make clear is that he and his family are not against the doctors; besides the two doctors in the emergency room at Surrey Memorial, all the other healthcare workers at Surrey Memorial and Royal Columbian “did all they could.”
One of the changes the family is calling for is a review of the wrongful death policy.
“I can’t sue a doctor or a hospital. I can’t hold them accountable. We don’t want dollars in exchange for our son. That’s not what we’re looking for here,” Justin said. “But there’s no accountability. There are no repercussions to this other than an internal investigation. So we do need wrongful death reform.”
“What we’re hoping for is that the health minister will review the 30-point plan for Surrey Memorial. It’s not working, and we want that done in six months,” Justin said.
He and his family would also like to see an education plan added to the 30-point plan.
“The public doesn’t know how to advocate for themselves. If I get arrested by the police, they’re gonna tell me what my rights are,” Justin said. “But if I come to the hospital, I don’t get that same treatment. The healthcare system knows that we have to advocate for ourselves, but these people that you see around you, these people, myself, we know we need to advocate, but how exactly do we do it?”
Ideally, the program would be taught in elementary schools, where you can teach kids how to advocate for themselves and speak up when something feels wrong.
“Teaching kids that, not just the doctors are good people, but if the doctor is putting the scope in your ear to look at an ear infection, but it hurts in the middle of your forehead, to make sure you’re talking to the doctor about that,” Justin said.
He would also like it to be mandatory for family doctors to teach their patients how to advocate for themselves, what to say to doctors in emergencies, and when to go to the emergency room vs. urgent care.
They are also asking for more access to family doctors.
“We want to try to get rid of that bottleneck that is in our emergency rooms, and that’s going to help people like Rowan, that’s going to help these doctors get more time to spend with our patients,” Justin said.
Family and friends created a Facebook group, called QB90, where they will continue to post updates.
The Surrey NOW-leader has reached out to the Ministry of Health for comment.