Family of Nunavut man who died on Canadian North flight wants answers
Health Department says its review showed all procedures were followed
Markosie Aulaqiaq’s sister says Markosie died on a Canadian North flight last week after her family expressed concerns about his need for oxygen on the flight. (File photo)
The family of an elder from Qikiqtarjuaq say they want to know why he died on a Canadian North flight last week while returning home after receiving medical treatment in Iqaluit.
Markosie Aulaqiaq, who was 84, died Sept. 27 while en route from Iqaluit to Qikiqtarjuaq.
Tina Aulaqiaq, Markosie’s sister, told Nunatsiaq News her brother was scheduled to return home to Qikiqtarjuaq on Sept. 22 after spending just over two weeks in Nunavut’s capital city.
“It makes me want to vomit. It’s very upsetting,” she said about the circumstances of his death.
Tina said she and her family were told by medical travel staff that it was necessary for her brother to be on a medevac plane to go home because he needed to take a direct flight and have an oxygen tank.
However, Aulaqiaq was placed on a commercial flight to Qikiqtarjuaq that made a scheduled stop in Clyde River, where he had to get oxygen because his tank was empty, Tina said.
“We were uncomfortable with him going through Clyde River,” she said. “We were still expecting him to be on that medevac plane but he wasn’t.”
Markosie died shortly before landing in Qikiqtarjuaq, she said.
“If an elder is going to fly out with a health problem, they should not send an elder out by a [scheduled] flight,” she said.
Tina said she visited her brother while he was in hospital and saw him off at the airport before he flew back.
“He was feeling a lot better. He was telling the stories and we chatted … I wanted to make sure he was fine and being looked after well. And he said he didn’t want me to worry because he’s in good hands,” she said.
Health Department spokesperson Chris Puglia declined a request for an interview with Health Minister John Main for this story.
Two days following Markosie’s death, the department said it had launched an investigation but declined to comment further.
In an emailed statement Wednesday, Puglia said the Department of Health has reviewed the circumstances around Markosie’s death, and has determined all procedures were followed.
He explained that the department will use a medevac for patient travel if an assessment from a physician or nurse practitioner determines a patient has needs that can’t be offered on a commercial flight. The need for oxygen is one of the needs that are considered.
“Otherwise, they will be scheduled on a regular commercial flight,” he said.
When a patient who is prescribed oxygen travels commercially on a medical travel ticket, the department contracts Canadian North to provide oxygen.
In an email to Nunatsiaq News, Canadian North spokesperson Annie Thomlinson said the airline is doing its own investigation of Aulaqiaq’s death and “could not speculate nor comment until its conclusion.” It also said it’s continuing to “work with agencies or authorities completing their investigations.”
“Our thoughts and prayers are with the community and the loved ones of Mr. Aulaqiaq,” Thomlinson wrote.
But Tina and her family still want to know what happened.
“If he was being sent out by medevac to Qikiqtarjuaq, maybe it would have been different. Maybe we would have a little time with him,” she said.
Tina said she and her nieces had been caring for Markosie for the past several months.
“I got so upset with this. He was an elder and he really wanted to go back home and spend some time with his children, his grandchildren,” she said.
Nuanvut’s chief coroner, Khen Sagadraca, said in an email to Nunatsiaq News that his office is investigating Markosie’s death and that a determination will be made on whether an inquest will be ordered.
This death may have been completely preventable. Session is coming up, questions should be raised about this incident. We have in this territory amazing hardworking healthcare professionals but a weak
incompetent management system and MLA’s. I hope an investigation takes place to have valuable lessons learned. My sincerest condolences to the family. If that was my grandfather I’d be questioning too, and demanding answers.
Or, you know, how about it isn’t an exact science predicting when the terminally ill will die?
You don’t know that it was preventable at all. This is a fallacy. Of course it is emotionally satisfying to lash out at the abstract forces of ‘incompetence’ which a warped ‘common sense’ dictate was very ‘obviously’ the source of the problem. But at least you embedded the simple truth that his death “may have been preventable.” That’s about right, it may have been, or it may not have been. We will probably never know for sure, but let’s not burden ourselves with possibilities or probabilities, those demand we hesitate and there is little emotional satisfaction to be found there.
I hope the family get some answers and sue who is responsible for this. My heart goes to the elders family. This is sad and needs to be corrected. Nunavut is a joke! We want GNWT back. None of this ever makes sense and inuit are in zero control when they were suppose to be. This Government works against its own people… yes I said it.
You said the thing that was easy to say, took no risk in saying and promised a cheap, quick reward from a peer group as incurious and uninterested in uncovering the truth as you are.
Remember that document you sign before leaving on medical? Your signature also exonerated GN even before you got on the plane from any eventualities like this one. otherwise, you cannot have any medical appointments at all at GN expense. Helping Nunavummiut is favorite slogan on campaigns. Ordinary MLAs are the only friends you have, once up there; the only thing matters is the pension level after their service as elected officials, case in point.
i think we are seeing the cracks of a system under strain. when you see forgotten bodies in the morgue and patients discharged to a commercial flight who shouldn’t be, you’re seeing the result of understaff, no staff, inexperienced staff, and a major pressure to empty beds
NTI, QIA step up, help assist, support this grieving family and take the GN, health dept to court. By the way, the minister of health should resign from his portfolio over this unfortunate death, This department in particular, medical travel in all regions is in total chaos. This death is absolutely was preventable in so many ways. Where is the accountability?
with two death of elders and how families were treated goes to show the systematic racism we face and I know I will have settlers in Nunavut that will say it doesn’t exit.
Settlers. Haha
It’s undoubtedly true that some deny racism is a significant factor in anything at all. It is, to be fair, much more difficult to quantify than most realize.
This difficulty acknowledging racism is made more difficult by people like yourself, who argue it is everywhere, ubiquitous, an inescapable oily vapor that coats everything in an ugly residue. From this perspective it must be identified where it is, and it is everywhere at all times.
We are trapped, it would seem, between two cartoonish representations of reality, neither more plausible or useful than the other.
Navigating the medical travel program has never been smooth but it seems like more and more stories are coming out recently that show it’s not even functioning. My sincere condolences to this family and anyone else on the receiving end of such care.
If I were this family I would look into getting a lawyer and sue the GN, they may have followed their procedures but their procedures need to be corrected.
What this poor elder had to go through being flown on a milk run when the doctors were telling the GN he can’t fly on a scheduled flight and can’t sit for long.
There was a reason we fought to get Nunavut as we felt so disconnected with the GNWT and so many things done by the government was so foreign and not the Inuit way, now we have the GN and it just continues to be disconnected and foreign, this is another great example oh that.
The GN has gone on the wrong direction for too long now, we need improvements on so many levels and it just doesn’t seem to be happening.
For the family of this poor elder I would suggest getting in tough with a lawyer and go from there.
Curious what you mean by the ‘Inuit way’? What about that would that have saved him? I assume you would mean something more traditional, like taking him home by dog team? Or would you let the shaman do his magic?
I actually suspect the ‘Inuit way’ is a heuristic you use to mean some ‘other possible world’ … specifically, the possible world where things would have went more favorably?
Iwonder, I assume you live in Nunavut? We Inuit have a different way of doing things and the southern/euro way is very foreign to us and most times do not make any sense.
With the doctors recommendations for the GN on this elders travel needs which were not taken into account and caused this elders death on route to his home community, this is were procedures that were followed by the GN does not work for Nunavut.
There are so many examples of differences from how the GN operates and conduct themselves that do not make any sense for Nunavut and Inuit, it might make sense for you as it seems to be more catered for how things are done in the south and for non-Inuit.
So much disconnection with our government for the majority of people in Nunavut but for the handful of people living here it makes perfect sense for them and see no issues here.
This is not the spirit of Nunavut that we fought for and wanted, just another cookie cutter version of government from the south.
Hi Paul, yes I live in Nunavut.
I suspect that saying ‘an Inuit way’ of doing things would have changed the outcome here is less meaningful than it appears. Whatever differences there might be in worldviews between you and I, I doubt there is an intrinsic factor within either that might improve our abilities to predict outcomes to uncertain situations.
The present moment can a fog, and so we make best guesses. Hindsight, on the other hand, is always clear. So clear that outcomes appear obvious (again, only in retrospect). You’ve already assumed that whatever decisions were made here “caused” this man’s death. That is possible, but not certain. Your saying so shows me that your thought process is already compromised by thinking you know unknowable things.
You might not agree with this, if so, I’d be interested to hear how your decision-making process would have led to a better result? What specific and more successful actions would have led to a better result, based on an Inuit way of thinking?
As I see it right now, your comment is really just scapegoating non-Inuit. Am I wrong to think so?
If this man was told it was unsafe to travel in his condition, there would have been another outcry of not letting someone go back to their home community like when Raymond Ningeocheak was refused to be flown to Coral due to his condition.
Now the GN allowed this elder to fly home with oxygen (which is a normal thing to fly with) and it seems at their request as in the CBC article it quoted his family “He just kept asking to come home to his children and family”. Medical travel would not have booked him if a doctor didn’t clear him, but I think the Doctors also are under pressure from patients to be allowed to return home. We can’t have it both ways, and this is the risk of returning patients and why the GN was so hesitant in the Coral case as if this happened they may face legal action.
No matter what people will be unhappy until we have more care in communities.
The family was told by someone at medical travel that he should be on a medivac flight. Was that correct information? Was it sourced from a doctor, or did someone in that office offer an opinion that became understood as gospel?
There are a lot of information gaps in this story and unfortunately, if the past is any indication of the future, we will probably not get answers to those here.
Always outrage!
A dying man died.
Families always trying to blame someone.
The health system is under strain.
Rather than complain, celebrate his life and complete your mourning.
No wonder we can’t find anyone to work in healthcare!
We have to change the way we deal with grief.
Sorry for your loss but not everything is an injustice.
In the article they say that the airline needs to provide Oxygen, then why did Canadian North not provide enough Oxygen since they would have known the schedule of the flight? and if they did not have enough oxygen they should have told Medical travel they could not accommodate the traveler.
And if it was medical travel that did not inform Canadian north when the booking was happening… why wasn’t this information passed on?
Be grateful that he was given the chance to try spend his last bit of life with his loved ones. A lot of people never do get that opportunity. A lawyer is not needed, health minister should not loose his job. There is no way a minister could make every single decision over every single patient.
If I were in that elders shoes, I would hope that I would be under the care of a doctor who has a heart and not afraid to make that call.
I have higher expectations for our government, the protocols in place for medical travel needs to be improved, with complexities with individual health issues and doctors recommendations the GN medical travel needs to have better and proper procedures guidelines and protocols in place.
The person making the decision may have followed the rules but the question here is are these rules that are in place the right ones?
It’s very unfortunate the staff at the GN did not listen to the doctors recommendations due to whatever reason, but again the GN could be doing so much better then what it has been doing.
I feel for the family and the elder who was trying to get home to see his family.
Nothing in the story indicates that a doctor recommended a different course of action than the one that was taken. Do you know something the rest of us don’t?
Maybe it was his time to go to his late family in paradise. Elders have a weaker immune system. Sad, but that’s reality.