Chief medical examiner defends two-year wait for child's autopsy report
Alberta's chief medical examiner is defending the two years it took to complete an autopsy report on the death of a child in kinship care.
Four-year-old Serenity was living with relatives on a reserve in central Alberta when she was airlifted to Stollery Children's Hospital on Sept. 18, 2014, suffering from a severe brain injury. She remained on life support until Sept. 27.
Dr. Elizabeth Brooks-Lim said her office knew the cause of Serenity's death immediately, but it took almost two years to determine whether the death was suspicious.
Whether the death is considered non-suspicious, suspicious or criminal has never been made public.
Police present at autopsy
Brooks-Lim said determining whether the death is suspicious can involve several investigations done outside the medical examiner's office, "and we have to wait for that."
She said if a medical examiner has any reason to think the death might be suspicious, they will stop the autopsy and call in police.
When asked if the police were at Serenity's autopsy, Brooks Lim replied, "Yes, they were. In this case the police were already present."
Because of the police investigation, the autopsy report will not be shared with family for the time being.
'Highly, highly unusual'
A former Alberta chief medical examiner said it's unheard of for an autopsy report to take two years.
"I just think it's highly, highly unusual and begs for explanation very quickly," said Dr. John Butt, chief medical examiner between 1977 to 1993, who participated in writing Alberta's Fatality Inquiries Act, legislation which includes investigating deaths of people under provincial care.
"I could turn around and say, 'Well, maybe there's something furtive about it,' but I wouldn't want to speculate on what that would be," he said. "It's very uncommon. Two years, this is crazy."
Brooks-Lim agrees that it's highly unusual. In the last 10 years there have only been two others that took that long, though neither involved children.
"We feel the burden of that," she said. "We are very, very conscious of the fact because of these delays, families suffer.
"They need the reports for closure."
Brooks Lim also points to the heavy caseload in her office which is slowing down the process.
Last year, seven medical examiners performed 4,000 post-mortem exams.
Brooks Lim said she is looking for ways to streamline the process.
Serenity's story spurred criticism of the NDP government this week, with opposition parties demanding Human Services Minister Irfan Sabir resign after learning the RCMP failed to receive critical documents in the case until this week.
Sabir refused to resign, instead saying an all-party ministerial panel will review the child intervention system and make recommendations to improve it.
