Justice For Paul.

As you all know Paul Hennessey passed away on July 23, 2023. Paul had been having health struggles for some time, he had an ablation done on his heart at St. Michael's in Toronto on June 26th. He returned home and this procedure had great promise to further his path to recovery. On the night of Saturday July 22nd Paul was experiencing what he knew to be Afib. Afib stands for atrial fibrillation (AF), which is a type of arrhythmia, or abnormal heartbeat. Paul had experienced this four times previously and each time had to be cardioverted at the hospital.

On the night of July 22nd he was taken to the Sault Area Hospital via ambulance. He was in Afib and he was cardioverted twice which eventually got his heart into a normal rhythm. The Doctor who was in charge of Paul's care then released him at 1 a.m. This was with full knowledge of his medical history and most recent cardiac issues.

The next morning, July 23rd, 2023 at 8:30 a.m. Paul suffered a heart attack at home. Despite all the efforts of his wife Wendy, who performed CPR on him until the arrival of Paramedics, Paul passed away at the Sault Area Hospital that morning.

As the news of his passing spread so many people expressed their shock that Paul had been discharged from the hospital at 1 a.m. given his medical history and current issues.

There is nothing but respect for our hardworking healthcare workers. What was overwhelming were the amount of similar stories that I was told about of what was seemingly inappropriate healthcare. This had been on my mind since Paul's death. I just couldn't reconcile why Paul had died in the manner that he had when in my mind all that had to be done was keeping him in the hospital for at least 24 hours to ensure that he was out of danger. Keeping Paul in the hospital and under observation, I am convinced, would have given him the chance of life instead of him having to die on his bedroom floor with his wife trying to save his life.

I wanted to find out why Paul had been discharged at such an odd time of the morning so I arranged an appointment with the emergency doctor who had been in charge of Paul's care. I attended this appointment with a friend who happens to be a retired medical doctor. Without getting into all the details of the meeting, the attending emergency doctor admitted that in hindsight he probably should not have discharged Paul. What disturbed me the most was not just what I perceived to be a flippant attitude but the fact that I discovered that there is no protocol in place.

This meeting left me with a feeling that I had no choice but to fight for Justice for Paul.

Nothing in this world can convince me that Paul would not of had the highest chance, which we all deserve, at living if he had only been kept in the hospital for at least 24 hours. Paul was a person who was giving of himself and would fight for what is right and that is what I find that I have no choice in doing now.

Under advice from various friends with legal and medical experience I proceeded to investigate what would be involved in undergoing a lawsuit. I have been in contact with an out of town law firm that specializes in medical malpractice. I want to emphasize at this time that this undertaking is not about a monetary gain but hopefully a change in healthcare protocol so that this might not happen to another loved one.

Medical malpractice is allowed, under Canadian law, to be done on consignment. There are unfortunately some items that law firms are not able to cover on a consignment case, one of which is a required expert medical review of Paul's case.

The cost of this medical review does not guarantee that I would be able to move forward with a legal case. My lawyer advised me that the costs for a medical report of this depth is $8,000.00, an amount that I simply can't burden at this time, thus I am turning to Go-Fund-Me. Any amount that you can contribute to it is immensely appreciated. I also want to state that should this legal proceeding result in a successful conclusion, the amount of funds that are raised with this Go-Fund-Me will be donated to ARCH. A much favoured charity of Paul's.

Thanks to all for taking the time to read this. I sincerely hope that this will result in a change to our healthcare system.