An addiction treatment centre failed 17-year-old Taylor Argent and his family when he found antifreeze in an unlocked garage and then consumed it hours before his death, his parent’s lawyer said during a fatality inquiry that ended Wednesday.
Damian Shepherd, lawyer for Kim and Mike Argent, questioned the Central Alberta Recovery Centre near Tees, now called Serenity Ranch, for having toxic compounds on the premises where people with drug and alcohol addictions were staying.
“There is the issue of having antifreeze being accessed in the first place,” said Shepherd, during closing submissions of the two-day inquiry in Red Deer provincial court.
The Red Deer teen had various drug and alcohol problems and had undergone five weeks of treatment earlier in 2007. He relapsed and ended up in the centre for a few days. On his third and final time, he asked his father to take him back to the centre on March 31, 2007, and two days later on Monday April 2, he died.
Court heard from staff on Tuesday that the garage behind the bunkhouse where the clients slept wasn’t always locked. One former client, Rodick John MacDonald, testified the garage was out of bounds for clients, but he was given privileges to use it for a craft project and that a jug of windshield wiper fluid was inside.
Shepherd said the centre could have intervened many times before staff discovered Taylor was unresponsive and unconscious sometime around 8:30 a.m. on April 2. A Lacombe ambulance was dispatched at 9:50 a.m, after senior counsellor James MacLean testified phoning a doctor in Bashaw first, who then advised to call 911.
Several clients testified seeing Taylor acting strangely many hours before he was found on the floor of his room.
Lonnie Kyle Matson said he observed Taylor near the garage at about 5:30 p.m. on Sunday, April 1, and that at one point in the evening Taylor had fallen a few times and seemed incoherent when he was talking to Matson. MacDonald testified that Taylor had appeared “tipsy” and Duane Rodney Mainville said he remembered Taylor stumbling in the bootroom.
The incidents were reported to then night attendant David Robert McMillan, who testified that he had sat next to Taylor’s room in the middle of the night after he had been banging in his room. McMillan phoned centre owner Jim Gray and then James MacLean, senior counsellor, twice about Taylor’s condition.
MacLean testified on Wednesday that on his second phone call with McMillan, he said, “If you think it’s valid, call an ambulance.” MacLean said had he known how serious Taylor’s condition was, he would have called an ambulance himself.
Some questions were raised during the inquiry about the extent of staff training and whether the centre’s policies and procedures were followed.
McMillan, who testified he wasn’t required to have formal drug training at hiring, was “totally unequipped to handle the crisis,” said Shepherd.
Shepherd said MacLean didn’t follow the rules to call for medical help after he found Taylor unresponsive the first time.
Taylor was taken by paramedics to Lacombe Hospital, where it was determined he would go by ground ambulance to Edmonton’s Royal Alexandra Hospital. But en route, he suffered a cardiac arrest and the ambulance was diverted to Ponoka. STARS took him to the University of Alberta Hospital where he suffered two more cardiac arrests before he died at 6:20 p.m.
Taylor was found to have three times the level of ethylene glycol in his body that is considered fatal.
Don Gross, the lawyer representing the addiction treatment centre, called the death a “horrible, terrible accident.” He said the centre has removed toxic compounds from the premises.
“I guess the real issue is should the night attendant have called the ambulance sooner and in hindsight, the answer is yes,” Gross said.
He said the centre isn’t avoiding responsibility. Perhaps, the two supervisors should have ordered an ambulance right away after speaking with McMillan, and that MacLean should have attended in the middle of the night to assess the situation, Gross added.
Jay Guthrie, a lawyer representing the hospitals and medical staff, said that by the time Taylor ended up in the Lacombe hospital at about 11 a.m. on April 2, it was likely 18 hours since Taylor had ingested the antifreeze.
“The evidence doesn’t call for any health care of medical changes to prevent any other deaths,” Guthrie said.
Shepherd told Judge James Hunter that Mike and Kim Argent had been “left in the dark” as to what had happened to their son, up until three months ago when they received a report.
“They initially were told that Taylor had stumbled and had gone to sleep,” Shepherd said.
Hunter will file a written report on any recommendations for the prevention of similar incidents. Outside the courthouse, Mike Argent said they hope to spare other families from enduring the grief they’ve felt for the last three years. The parents, who have another son, have started a foundation in memory of Taylor.
“Taylor was an amazing kid,” added Kim, tears welling up in her eyes. “He had a lot of friends and he was a special friend to his brother.”
ltester@www.reddeeradvocate.com