‘As quickly as I could’: Chief coroner wants pipeline from hospital to detox

Saskatchewan’s chief coroner is looking to improve things after the drug overdose death of a man just hours after he was released from hospital.

Shayne Turner, 31, died in November 2021 of a drug overdose. That was the same day he’d been released from a Regina hospital after suffering an overdose the day before.

Data from the coroner’s office said Turner’s death was one of 410 confirmed and suspected deaths due to drug toxicity in the province in 2021. That number rose to 421 in 2022, with 204 confirmed deaths and 217 more suspected cases.

Those numbers could change as investigations are concluded.

According to media reports, Turner’s family said he requested a detox bed several times before he was discharged, but he was ultimately sent on his way with only a handful of information pamphlets and a cab voucher, and was advised to contact social services.

Clive Weighill, the province’s chief coroner, reopened the investigation at the request of Turner’s family. On Thursday, Weighill released two recommendations.

The first was that the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) consider “a formal protocol between Regina hospital emergency departments and the Regina Brief and Social Detox Services, as a way to provide an immediate avenue for admittance if a person is requesting entry to the detox centre when being released from care.”

The second recommendation called on the health authority to review its protocols around providing naloxone kits to individuals treated for drug addiction or overdose when they are released. Naloxone is a nasal spray that temporarily blocks the effects of opiates on the body during an overdose.

Turner’s family said he was not given one when he was released.

The family had been asking for a coroner’s inquest into his death, but Weighill decided to go straight to recommendations. He said during the investigation, his office found what would have come out of an inquest anyway.

Weighill also said this would be more timely.

“This is something that we see very regularly when we’re dealing with addictions right across Canada. When people need an addictions bed, if they don’t get one right away, we see them going back out and then returning into the drug habit again. So, I thought it was very important to get a recommendation as quickly as I could to the SHA,” said Weighill.

Weighill said when making recommendations, he tries to find things that are financially viable and things that could be put into place if the money and effort were put in.

The coroner is very hopeful the SHA will take the recommendations.

A record for overdose deaths

This marks the third year in a row the province has seen record drug overdose deaths in the multiple hundreds. In 2020, that number jumped to 304 from 154 in 2019.

If there is a positive in the 2022 numbers, Weighill said it’s that the amount of the increase from year to year is decreasing.

“Rather than seeing 100 or 150 cases increase every year, we’re only up about 15 cases over last year,” said Weighill.

The chief coroner said that could mean Saskatchewan is coming up on a plateau.

The majority of those deaths involved fentanyl or derivatives of it and Weighill said most involve multiple substances.

With the spike in deaths the last couple of years, and many of those people not having medical records, the coroner’s service is doing about 400 more autopsies a year now and has had to hire two more forensic pathologists.

The deaths are, of course, difficult for the people’s families, but it’s been difficult on the community and full-time coroners as well, according to Weighill.

“You hear about police (and) firefighters being affected with PTSD and things that happen with them. I would say at the least the police and firefighters have some good calls they go on and some positive calls. Unfortunately, our coroners, every call they go on is a death,” said Weighill.

“They can go on these and they can see a young life (or) an older life (that) has been taken by a drug overdose – probably needlessly and possibly could have been prevented.”

The chief coroner said the No. 1 thing he wants to help with this problem is education. He said people need to know that this affects people from all walks of life, not just the young or homeless. The numbers show the largest group suffering from overdose deaths are men 35 to 45 years of age.

“These were people that were very productive in their lives and somehow they got involved in drugs and got addicted to drugs and they’ve had an overdose or a drug toxicity death,” explained Weighill.

Weighill said his second focus is more beds for addictions treatment. He said there’s no easy answer to the problem; law enforcement, health and mental health all play a part.