Nurse who shone light on dangerous conditions at Nunavut health centre dies at 77

Sheighlyn Slade holds dear many memories of her mom, but one, she says, is a quote that echoes in her mind.

“You never know how amazing it feels when you can snatch someone back from death. It is an incredible feeling,” she recounted last week, in memory of Gwen Slade, a former Nunavut nurse who dedicated her career to her patients and the communities where she worked.

Gwen Slade died Feb. 4 at her Trenton, Ont., farm. She was 77.

Sheighlyn Slade poses with her mom Gwen Slade and daughter Irelyn Slade. (Photo courtesy of Sheighlyn Slade)

And Slade did save lives, according to Jan Inman, a former leader in the profession for the North.

“She was highly skilled, she was totally competent, a professional nurse,” said Inman.

“She knew what she was doing and because of her care, people were well cared for and they survived.”

As former director of professional conduct for the Registered Nurses Association for the Northwest Territories and Nunavut, Inman was privy to circumstances in Cape Dorset (now Kinngait) that led to the death of a three-month-old baby in 2012.

Nobody likely would have known about the dangerous levels of dysfunction in that community’s health centre if not for Gwen Slade’s persistence.

“Her attempts were to make it known that the work environment in that particular health centre was very toxic, and it was toxic because of the fact that the nurses that were there were running it the way they felt like it. They were not following policies,” Inman said.

“And so, she brought that all to light.”

In consequence, Gwen Slade herself became the target of vexatious code-of-conduct and harassment complaints, was pushed out of working in Nunavut and ultimately stopped nursing.

Sheighlyn Slade said her mother was never the same after that experience.

“I think I lost a big part of my mom when this all went down,” she said, speaking by phone last week from her mother’s farm.

“I watched [as] really quickly the light just disappeared from her eyes.”

Gwen Slade was no longer in Kinngait when baby Makibi Timilak died. She learned of it from the baby’s family, with whom she had grown close, her daughter said.

Gwen Slade celebrates her graduation with her parents. (Photo courtesy of Sheighlyn Slade)

The longtime nurse fought the Nunavut government to investigate Timilak’s death, and ultimately prevailed.

The government commissioned a review of workplace conditions at the health centre, which found major problems. It held a public inquest into Timilak’s death and formally apologized to the baby’s family.

The GN is still working today on implementing recommendations from that report.

Sheighlyn Slade remembers this time as frustrating for herself and her two older brothers, Sam Martin and Stephan Weatherall.

“Her whole time behind the scenes was dedicated to that [case],” she said.

“My family took a back seat, you know, and that’s not a shame. That’s just the level of care that she had.”

Before her time in Nunavut, she travelled with her mom to various remote communities where she was posted.

“She was like Mother Teresa almost,” she laughed, remembering times when her mother would casually recount “giving so-and-so $100 … because they didn’t have any money and they needed food.”

She recalled a huge kitchen table constantly surrounded by family, friends and anyone who might need a meal.

Gwen Slade poses with her horses. Caring for horses was a passion in her life, according to Sheighlyn Slade. (Photo courtesy of Sheighlyn Slade)

“If you were hungry, she wouldn’t ask questions,” she said.

“She would put a plate of food in front of you and say, ‘Eat until you are full.’”

Following in her mother’s footsteps, Sheighlyn Slade is on track to graduate next spring with a degree in nursing.

She wants to get into pediatric nursing, but said she also wants to make the profession safer for nurses like her mom, who suffered for reporting unsafe care.

“I’ve got huge shoes to fill and I don’t even know where to begin to do it,” she said.