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Toronto expert to review deaths of two young mothers
Jennifer Ryan
Photo courtesy of Christopher Cielecki

Jennifer Ryan shown in 2010 with son Nicholas.
next play/pause pre 1/1Hamilton Spectator
ByJoanna Frketich
The head of emergency medicine at Toronto’s largest hospital network is reviewing the deaths of two young moms at Hamilton General Hospital.

Jennifer Ryan would have turned 25 Friday. The previously healthy mother of two young sons sought medical attention three times for worsening flu-like symptoms — including a visit to Hamilton General Hospital’s emergency room in the days before she died. She was eventually rushed to Juravinski Hospital by ambulance Jan. 11 and transferred to Hamilton General after losing consciousness. She died Jan. 14 of what her husband, Christopher Cielecki, was told was meningitis.

“It’s just a tragedy,” said Cielecki. “She was a beautiful person. She would do anything for anybody. I hope people remember that smile.”

Dr. Anil Chopra, medical director of emergency medicine at the University Health Network, has been asked by Hamilton Health Sciences to review the deaths of Ryan and 26-year-old Ashly Coville.

RELATED: Deaths of two moms spark coroner’s probe

Coville didn’t know she was newly pregnant with her second child when she died Dec. 26 at Hamilton General from what her husband, Philip Kowch, was told was pneumonia.

Kowch says she also visited Hamilton General’s emergency department days before she died and was sent home.

An initial internal investigation by HHS determined there was nothing the General’s emergency department or intensive care unit could have done differently to save the women.

But it called in the outside expert to make sure it didn’t miss anything and to maintain public confidence in the hospital.

Kowch recently received some of Coville’s medical records — weeks after he says he requested them. He’s still trying to get the records from the initial emergency room visit.

“I’m very upset with the way she died,” he said. “She died miserable, upset and alone.”

The deaths are also being investigated by the coroner’s office.

HHS doesn’t yet have a deadline for the review to be finished. The reviewer is expected to meet with Cielecki and Kowch at the beginning of March.

Ryan’s friends are planning a fundraiser for her children on March 29 at the Royal Canadian Legion Polish Veterans Branch 315, 4 Solidarnosc Place. Tickets are $10. For more information email benefitjenn@yahoo.com.

A recent fundraiser for Coville’s children raised about $900.

Young mom dies after flu-like symptoms
‘Chris, there is something wrong’
MOTHER AND BABY
Christopher Cielecki/Special to The Hamilton Spect

Jennifer Ryan, who died January 14 following a brief illness, with son Noah last year.
next play/pause pre 1/1Hamilton Spectator
ByJoanna Frketich
A 24-year-old Hamilton woman has died from an illness that started as flu-like symptoms.

Jennifer Ryan sought medical attention three times as her symptoms continued to get worse the week before she died, her husband says. She was sent home each time with medication until she finally got so sick, he called 911.

Two hospitals tried to save her life but it was too late. The previously-healthy mother of two boys died Jan. 14.

“I feel robbed,” her husband Christopher Cielecki said Thursday. “I feel totally let down.”

He asks himself if she’d still be alive if the emergency department had taken her symptoms more seriously.

“I understand the doctor was probably overworked and seeing so many people with flu,” said Cielecki. “But how could you just send her home? I want this doctor to remember her face.”

The family thought it was no big deal when Ryan and her two sons, 10-month-old Noah and four-year-old Nicholas, went to the family doctor Jan. 4 because all three had flu-like symptoms.

The doctor gave them medication and told them to come back if it got worse.

“The doctor said her and the kids were sick with the flu that was going around,” said Cielecki.

Hamilton has been in the midst of a massive peak of influenza A that started around Dec. 15. Seven people with flu have died, including two children, one adult and four seniors. It’s unknown if Ryan is included in those numbers.

By Jan. 8, Ryan was getting worse and had a high fever. Her husband took her to a walk-in clinic. At first, the clinic sent her home with antibiotics. But they soon called to say Ryan should go to a hospital instead.

She toughed it out for the night, thinking she didn’t need to go to the hospital for the flu. But the next day, she went to the emergency department at Hamilton General Hospital.

Her symptoms were getting worse: she had a high fever, what looked like blisters forming on her back, arms and hands, and her arms felt numb.

Her husband said she waited roughly three hours in the waiting room, got an X-ray and was sent home with antibiotics.

“This is a sad situation. We send our condolences to the family. Our heart goes out to them,” Dick McLean, vice-president of medical affairs and quality said in a statement. “We cannot comment on this case, but it is our practice to review patient care on an ongoing basis. We will share the results with the family.”

By Jan. 11, Ryan was throwing up, had diarrhea and needed help washing. She had to stop breastfeeding her baby.

“She said, ‘Chris there is something wrong,’” said Cielecki.

He called an ambulance and she was taken to Juravinski Hospital, given antibiotics intravenously and put in isolation.

Cielecki says the doctors told him she’d come just in time.

“She asked about the kids,” Cielecki recalled of their last conversation. “She said, ‘Chris don’t worry. Everything is fine.’”

Soon after she lost consciousness and never woke up. She was rushed to Hamilton General Hospital, which specializes in neurology. Her husband was told she died of meningitis, a bacterial infection of the membranes covering the brain and spinal cord. It’s unclear whether she also had influenza and pneumonia, which was the earlier diagnosis.

“We had so many dreams and plans,” says Cielecki. “We didn’t care if we lived in a cardboard box as long as we were together.”

He said she was always smiling and quick to help anyone who needed it.

“She had so much to live for,” said Dale Yates, her manager at Fortino’s House of Flowers in Fiesta Mall in Stoney Creek, where Ryan was a florist. “She was full of plans. It’s just so wrong.”

At no time did the young couple imagine the flu-like symptoms could be life-threatening.

“Never in my entire life did I think this could happen,” said Cielecki. “It just seems like a bad dream.”

jfrketich@thespec.com

905-526-3349 | @Jfrketich