Intoxicated Iqaluit woman resisted QGH staff

A small cut on the back of Elisapee Michael’s head and a quarter-sized bloodstain on her hospital pillow were the only outward signs of injury the Iqaluit woman showed while being examined by doctors at the Qikiqtani General Hospital several nights before she died.

The testimony came to light as the coroner’s inquest examining the death of the 52-year old Michael continued this week in Iqaluit.

Michael died in 2009, four days after she fell down the stairs at the Nova Inn, and after she was taken to hospital, jail, then back to the hospital.

The inquest heard April 5 that Michael was drunk and combative after paramedics took her to the hospital just before midnight August 9, 2009.

Bruce Johnson, the doctor who examined Michael that night, said he only found a small amount of blood on his gloves after examining the back of Michael’s neck.

But beside that, she exhibited signs of being drunk, not suffering from a head injury, he said.

“My clinical judgment at the time was intoxication, not head injury,” he said.

Kelly Morris, now a doctor in Nova Scotia, and a resident at QGH in 2009, said she examined Michael before and after Johnson did.

Morris testified that Michael appeared to be asleep or unconscious at first, but responded to attempts to elicit pain, a technique used to gauge responsiveness and assess head injuries.

Morris said she saw a small amount of blood at the base of Michael’s skull and found a small bloodstain on the hospital pillow.

Both had been concealed by the neck brace paramedics put on Michael when they arrived at the hotel that night. Such a practice is standard with suspected head injuries.

While she was at the hospital Micahel grew unruly, demanding to be released from wrist restraints that hospital staff put on her so she could be examined.

She complained of being unable to breathe, even though Morris found she had no signs of respiratory distress.

Christos Liptak, who worked as a security guard at the hospital that night, told police in 2009 that Michael was screaming and at one point tried to run out of the trauma room, but tripped and fell into a desk containing medical supplies.

Liptak told police he cradled Michael’s head and neck as she fell, to protect her from further injury.

Liptak’s testimony came in the form of an interview he gave to Winnipeg RCMP in August, 2009.

Authorities were unable to find him for this inquiry.

“She was screaming ‘I can’t breathe! I can’t breathe!’” Liptak said.

He said Michael resisted all attempts by Morris, Johnson and a nurse to examine her.

The nurse, Rob McLean, at one point had to physically restrain Michael by putting his hands on her shoulders.

Morris testified that Johnson said Michael needed to sober up before she could be properly examined. RCMP were called to the hospital and took her out to the police truck in a wheelchair.

“She was really intoxicated,” Liptak said. “She couldn’t walk. That was why she was put in a wheelchair.”