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CBC
29-05-2025
- General
- CBC
A B.C. couple waited weeks to get their stillborn daughter's remains. Then, they were invoiced for her autopsy
Nick Bordignon was still deep in grief over the death of his infant daughter last October when an envelope from the Provincial Health Services Authority (PHSA) turned up in his mailbox. It was addressed to the infant he and his wife had named Makayla Poppy when she was delivered at B.C. Children's Hospital four weeks earlier following an ultrasound that showed the child was dead. Inside was an invoice for the cost of an autopsy and an itemized list of tests conducted by a coroner — a bill the PHSA has since admitted the Bordignons were never supposed to see. And to make matters worse, the letter seemed to indicate Makayla's body was still in the morgue — two weeks after the autopsy was performed and nearly a month after she was stillborn. "I remember just standing there in disbelief … and the initial confusion very quickly turned to rage," said Bordignon, who works as a police officer. "I'm no fool, I've seen autopsies performed, they are not pretty … it was soul-crushing and just wrong.... It's just like, okay, so if this is an itemized list, this means the autopsy has been done. Where is she?" 'Who's to say it can't happen again?' CBC News has learned that the Bordignons' concerns about both the invoice and the delay in releasing Makayla's body are now under investigation by B.C.'s Patient Care Quality Review Board — the body tasked with reviewing complaints about health authority policies and procedure. The story highlights what experts say is a lack of standardized care when it comes to stillbirths, which can result in errors that traumatize already grieving families. The Bordignons' are not the first B.C. family to experience delays receiving their baby's body after a birth or stillbirth — a situation apparently compounded by disagreements over who ultimately bears responsibility for delivering the child to the family. Dr. Lynn Murphy-Kaulbeck, president of the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada, says the Bordignons' experience is indicative of wider problems in the system. "That horrible story just speaks to a larger issue of not having things in place," she told CBC. "The system not acknowledging the gravity of what's occurred and not having systems in place so that no parent will ever go through that." Bordignon says losing Makayla already felt "insurmountable." "To have these other things added to it, the invoice, delay of having her return to us, it's things that harm an already terrible experience," said Bordignon. "Even if it's an error, who's to say it can't happen again?" 'Error in coordination' In the hours they had with Makayla's body after she was born on Sept. 25, 2024, Bordignon says he and his wife Laura admired her brunette hair, large feet and "super cute" nose. They also consented to an autopsy that might help them learn more about what had gone wrong. "We kind of looked at it as she will be protecting her future siblings with this knowledge," said Laura Bordignon The family say they were told Makayla's body would be transferred to the B.C. Children's Hospital's morgue for an autopsy. They believed she would then be promptly transferred the funeral home the Bordignons chose to collect her remains. "Walking out of the hospital after a birth without a child is soul-crushing," said Nick. "We know she's not coming home the way that we want her to come home, obviously. But it was this notion that when she'd be home, she'd be safe. She'd be with her parents." According to the invoice, Makayla's autopsy was performed on Oct. 7. In a letter to the family, PHSA apologized and reversed the invoice. After the Bordignons received the invoice in the mail and called the hospital, the process of getting Makayla's remains home unfolded quickly. Makayla's body was released and transferred to the funeral home where it was cremated. Not the first time The Bordignons told CBC they just want a clear understanding of what went wrong. The couple began by filing a letter to Provincial Health Services Authority asking for the invoice to be scrapped and for the hospital to make changes to stop something like this from happening ever again. In a letter, the PHSA apologized for the invoice and said the charges for the autopsy had been reversed. But the Bordignons say they weren't satisfied the hospital's response would prevent the same thing from happening again and requested a face-to-face meeting with leadership. They've been promised a chance to do that in June. Now the issue has been escalated to the provincial Patient Care Quality Review Board. The board says it is experiencing a "backlog" and anticipates the review might not be complete for several months. It's not the first time grieving parents have lost their child's remains to miscommunication. In 2022, Émilie Negahban says her child's body was left unnecessarily in the morgue for eight weeks. Negahban gave CBC a letter she received from PHSA's Patient Care Quality Office after she filed a complaint about how long her son had been left in the morgue. The letter promised to standardize the process to reduce the risk of it happening again. "It's disheartening to see that another grieving family already went through this. They did the proper steps to try to get that preventative measure," said Nick Bordignon. In a statement to the CBC from Ruth Appanah, the executive director of B.C. Women's and B.C. Children's hospitals, the organizations offered a sincere apology to the both families and said "we take these matters incredibly seriously." The statement says that hospital leaders are taking action and that "we have an obligation to learn from families and do our best to improve." 'She's back home' As a maternal fetal medicine specialist, Murphy-Kaulbeck wants a more robust system working to prevent stillbirths while supporting families like the Bordignons in their grief. "If you have a system where you're looking from the beginning to the end, and it's dealt with every time the same way with the same respect and the same process, you won't hear stories like that," she said. The U.K. and Australia have adopted national bereavement care guidelines for families after stillbirth. They have also adopted national action plans to decrease the number of stillbirths from happening in the first place. Even the definition of what counts as a still birth is not standard across nations. In the U.K. a stillbirth is defined as loss that happens after 24 weeks — which sets the rate at about four deaths per thousand births. In Canada, where stillbirth is is defined as loss after 20 weeks, the rate is nine deaths per thousand. Murphy-Kaulbeck has been asked by Ottawa to help develop a national action plan on stillbirth. She cites estimates from the World Health Organization that say 30 to 40 per cent of stillbirths are actually preventable. "As a country, we aren't addressing it to the degree that it needs to be addressed," she said. The Bordignons picked up Makayla's ashes from the funeral home on a rainy day in the first week of November. They chose a small heart-shaped purple urn with a silver butterfly for her. Laura protected it under her jacket. The couple held the box and cried. "We have her on the mantle now," said Nick. "She's back home."
Globe and Mail
28-05-2025
- Business
- Globe and Mail
BC Cancer chief medical officer and executive vice-president stepping down
Kim Nguyen Chi, who led BC Cancer through a period of tension and transition as the provincial agency sought to tackle growing wait times and adapt to the increasing demands of the future, is resigning from his leadership roles. Dr. Chi is set to step down as chief medical officer and executive vice-president of BC Cancer at the end of May, after six years at the helm. After taking personal time, he will return to his clinical practice, and to leading a prostate cancer research program in Vancouver on July 2. Penny Ballem, the interim president and chief executive officer at the Provincial Health Services Authority (PHSA), which governs BC Cancer, is expected to name an interim leader for the agency in the coming days. In an internal memo, Dr. Chi said he was proud of how BC Cancer faced tough challenges head-on, including the demands of the COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath. Pandemic measures forced the postponement of thousands of surgeries and exacerbated long-standing strains across health care. 'I took on this leadership role because I recognized the growing incidence, prevalence and complexity of cancer care that we were facing,' he said in the May 13 memo. 'With the launch of the 10-year cancer action plan, we have made a pivotal step forward to ensure that we have a cancer system that can deliver the care that is needed now and in the future.' PHSA did not make Dr. Chi available for an interview. BC Cancer has faced significant pressures in recent years. A 2022 Globe and Mail investigation found that shortages of medical and support staff, along with technology used to detect and treat cancer, had led to some of the longest wait times for cancer care in Canada. Staff reported surging burnout and low morale. In 2023, the province announced a 10-year cancer action plan with an additional $440-million in funding to BC Cancer over the first three years to address what Premier David Eby and then-health minister Adrian Dix referred to as 'warning signs' that the agency was not meeting key treatment benchmarks. Among progress made, Dr. Chi cited four new cancer centres – in Burnaby, Nanaimo, Kamloops and Surrey – that are expected to open by 2030, investments in the latest technologies and an unprecedented expansion of the work force. 'We added hundreds of new staff, enabling us to bring nurses back into outpatient clinics, support team-based care, increase provider capacity and improve timely access to radiation and chemotherapy,' he said in the memo. Dr. Chi, an oncologist with BC Cancer for more than 25 years, was appointed to his provincial leadership roles in July, 2019. Prior to that, he served two years as an administrative leader at the Vancouver cancer centre. In late March, the province announced that it would review its regional health authorities, beginning with PHSA. For this review of patient care and administrative spending, Health Minister Josie Osborne installed Dr. Ballem, who until then served as board chair at Vancouver Coastal Health. The province did not publicly provide terms of reference or target dates for the review. Dr. Ballem said in a statement Wednesday to The Globe that the goal of her review is to ensure that PHSA provides 'quality, culturally safe care and services in the most efficient and sustainable way possible.' She has engaged with thousands of PHSA staff through town halls and group meetings over the last six weeks, and this engagement will become 'increasingly more targeted and involve analysis of specific programs and services' moving forward, she said. Dr. Ballem added that she has provided the Ministry of Health with an update on her progress, and that it was her understanding that the government will provide a broader public update, including finer details about the PHSA review, in the near future.
