Staff at an addiction treatment centre near Tees were unaware how dire a 17-year-old’s medical state was for hours after he had consumed antifreeze on the premises without their knowledge, a Red Deer provincial courtroom heard Tuesday.
A fatality inquiry into the death of Taylor Argent of Red Deer revealed that a night attendant at the Central Alberta Recovery Centre had phoned supervisors about Argent’s unusual behaviour early the morning of Monday April 2, 2007. Hours later, he died inside the pediatric intensive care unit at Edmonton’s University of Alberta Hospital.
David Robert McMillan, now a former employee living in Campbell River, B.C., said he was doing his regular graveyard shift which required regular bed checks at the bunkhouse. At about 1 a.m., banging noise was heard inside Taylor’s room, testified McMillan.
“I was thinking Taylor may have been on some kind of downers so I called Mr. Gray and told him what I thought,” said McMillan, referring to James Gray, the centre’s owner.
Taylor had completed a five-week program at the centre previously but was brought back by his father, Mike, on March 31 after a relapse.
Gray, who was in Toronto at the time, told the night caretaker to phone another staff member, Jim Maclean.
McMillan said Maclean who told him to give “it about a half hour” before calling an ambulance. By then it was about 2 a.m., and McMillan noticed when Taylor was walking, his steps were exaggerated.
“I quickly went into room and saw he had urinated on floor,” said McMillan.
“I called Mr. Maclean again and he said ‘give it about 20 minutes’. Things quieted down and about 3 to 3:30 a.m. Taylor was sleeping.”
Taylor’s door was wide open, McMillan said.
McMillan said he didn’t recall seeing or being told to review the centre’s policy and procedures manual, which tells staff to check on clients regularly through the night for breathing patterns and bedwetting.
At around 7:30 a.m., McMillan said he woke up the other clients but chose to let Taylor sleep.
Damian Shepherd, a lawyer acting for Taylor’s parents Mike and Kim, asked if he felt he had to receive authority from Maclean or Gray to call an ambulance. McMillan said ‘no.’
“Did either say err on the side of caution and call an ambulance?” asked Shepherd.
“No sir,” replied McMillan.
“There was supposed to be zero tolerance for alcohol and drugs. Why wasn’t anyone from the family called to pick him up?” asked Shepherd.
“That’s a good question,” McMillan said. “Don’t know sir.”
Lonnie Kyle Matson, a former client, testified that he recalled seeing Taylor falling a few times the evening of April 1. Earlier that day, before an AA meeting in a nearby community, Matson said Taylor smelled of something but he wasn’t sure what the smell was. Karen Cretney, who helped start the centre in October 2006 and had been in an off-and-on again relationship with Gray, said she had seen Taylor trip over an ash tray before the 7:30 p.m. AA meeting, but felt that “teenagers can be clumsy.” She didn’t smell alcohol on Taylor.
When she returned to the centre at about 8 a.m. on April 2, she was told Taylor had had “a bad night.”
Cretney said Maclean slapped Taylor hard enough in an effort to waken him, but he was unresponsive. She testified that it took “minutes” to make the call for an ambulance.
“The first thing we were looking for were sleeping pills,” Cretney said.
She said she remembered seeing a jug of antifreeze, but said she and Maclean “assumed it wasn’t” the cause.
A Lacombe ambulance was dispatched at 9:50 a.m. and arrived at 10:13 a.m. at the Tees centre. Taylor was found unresponsive and unconscious, his feet still on the bed while the rest of his body was on a mattress on the floor. Paramedic Camron Maki said they left the centre at 10:41 a.m. and said had he known that ethylene glycol was the cause, it wouldn’t have changed his treatment.
Lacombe Dr. Cecil McKibbin said Taylor arrived in a “deep coma” and that with very little information to go on about the patient, he gave the Critical Care line a call. It’s staffed by a network of physicians in Edmonton, who then made necessary arrangements to send Taylor to a tertiary care centre in Edmonton.
“My instincts were such that I felt I needed a combined ICU — I felt I could not access all those services under Red Deer (Regional Hospital Centre),” McKibbin said. Maki testified that while en route to Edmonton, Taylor suffered a cardiac arrest on Hwy 2, so he was taken to the Ponoka hospital, arriving at 12:53 p.m. He was later airlifted by STARS to the University Hospital, where Taylor suffered two cardiac arrests. At 6:20 p.m. after 30 minutes of attempted resuscitation, he was pronounced dead.
Dr. Allan de Caen, attending physician in Edmonton, testified that in his 20 years of pediatriac ICU work that this was the worst case of ethylene glycol that he had seen, the only death of ethanol glycol that he had seen. It’s very treatable if found early enough, he said.
But he said, given the chance of having Taylor put on dialysis a few hours earlier, likely would not have changed the outcome of death.
Gray said he did not do his own probe so as not to taint any other investigations into the death of the Red Deer teen in an Edmonton hospital on April 2, 2007 after he drank anti-freeze at the Central Alberta Recovery Centre at Tees, Alta.
Damian Shepherd, a lawyer acting for Argent’s parents Mike and Kim, asked Gray if he purposely avoided doing his own fact finding.
“Absolutely,” said Gray.
The garage where Taylor got hold of the anti-freeze was often locked, but not always. The centre, which has since been renamed Serenity Ranch, now has policies in place to ensure that any chemicals are locked up or stored off site.Shepherd pointed out that the centre’s policy says an ambulance should be called at once if a client is non-responsive. Gray said he didn’t know why an ambulance was not called when staff first noticed something amiss with Taylor.
Dr. Graham Jones, chief toxicologist for the province’s medical examiner’s office, said the level of ethylene glycol in Taylor’s body was three times what is generally considered a lethal dose.
Former Bashaw RCMP Const. Lisa Ruddell said police were assigned to gather statements from all those who had been in contact with Taylor for the medical examiner. Ruddell confirmed no charges were laid. “There was nothing to support criminal charges being laid.”
Justice James Hunter will continue to hear testimony today and will then compile a written report.
The judge may make recommendations for the prevention of similar incidents, but can’t make any findings of legal responsibility.
ltester@www.reddeeradvocate.com