Sisters react after Ballantyne inquest

Years later, William (Billy) Ballantyne’s sisters still can’t comprehend how he ended up in a police cell after he was taken to hospital by ambulance with severe back pain.

When recalling the post-1 a.m. discussion with paramedics on Nov. 29, 2012, Billy’s sister Mabel said “I told them he was delirious, I said he’s not thinking right.”

Billy died of an accidental acetaminophen overdose later that morning in a police cell.

Blanche Naytowhow, another of his siblings, said she had many questions about her brother’s death, which hadn’t been pieced together until last week.

“How did he come from being in the emergency ward to becoming an inmate all of a sudden? … He was sent to the hospital sick,” Naytowhow explained.

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For three days last week Mabel and Naytowhow, listened to people describe what led to Billy’s death at a coroner’s inquest in Prince Albert.

The inquest’s purpose was to find out how he died, and find suggestions to avoid similar deaths in the future.

On Tuesday, Naytowhow and Mabel who both live on Little Red River First Nation spoke to paNOW to share their brother’s story and share what they took away from that inquest.

Why wasn’t Billy treated?

More than two years ago, Billy’s sisters believed he would be treated right after the ambulance arrived at Prince Albert’s Victoria Hospital.

According to staff with Prince Albert Parkland Health Region, he should have been treated or reassessed within an hour of arriving in the emergency room (ER). This was based on an initial discussion with the triage nurse and paramedics according to a scale of urgency followed by hospital staff.

However, Billy was not treated or seen again by a nurse or doctor in a multiple-hour stay in the waiting room.

While he was suffering from the pain of his liver shutting down from the overconsumption of Tylenol pills to deal with days of sickness, his family was contacting the hospital.

Mabel said they phoned the ER nearly every half-hour after Billy was taken to check in on him, and at one point was told he had left. The search for more information led her to wake up everyone else in the family after 4 a.m., she said.

Through the inquest, the sisters heard a man tried to get help for Billy during that time.

“I wanted to thank him for helping my brother as much as he could while he was in there,” Naytowhow said.

Having an advocate in the ER was important, she explained, because he was a quiet man.

“My brother was not the kind of person to make noise, like he keeps to himself. He’s not the kind of a person that would go in and make a ruckus anywhere.”

While they thank that man for his efforts, they aren’t pleased with the treatment Billy received from others that morning.

“Right from the ambulance, he was labeled as a drunk I guess you could say, a homeless person. They didn’t know him. They didn’t know he had a life, they didn’t know he had kids… They just assumed, just as soon as he walked into like, I don’t know if I should say this but, ‘this is just another Indian coming in that needs a fix, ’” Naytowhow said.

One of the guards said at the inquest it seemed Billy was being a nuisance by asking people for money and cigarettes.

“He had his own money, his own cigarettes, he had everything. I don’t know why they turned him away right to the waiting room,” Naytowhow said.

The women said they hope the four recommendations that came out of the inquest come to fruition.

Chief among those is a request for more assistance with Victoria Hospital’s triage staff.

Naytowhow and Mabel say they’ve received ample support from their reserve of Montreal Lake Cree Nation’s Chief Edward Henderson.

Through the band, chief and council, they worked with Kimberly Stonechild. The lawyer spoke on their behalf at the inquest.

One request she’d made for the jury before they delivered their recommendations revolved around cultural awareness. Stonechild noted those who work with public take sensitivity training, which includes Prince Albert Parkland Health Region staff, police and paramedics.

“When speaking with the family I think everybody agrees that you can receive sensitivity training for your employment but that doesn’t mean you incorporate it in your day-to-day practices.”

She acknowledges there was no direct evidence from the inquest that his appearance played into his treatment, but Stonechild does say it may still have played a part.

“From the proceedings we heard that if a little bit of extra time was taken for Billy, if his concerns were taken seriously, perhaps if he wasn’t labeled as an intoxicated individual, if that one further step had been taken,” the severity of his condition could have been caught.

The man they lost

The past decades has been marked by tragedy for the family. Naytowhow and Mabel lost their mother in January, and several siblings recently. Only four members of the family of 12 are still alive.

Billy had a family of his own. He left behind a wife, three children and several stepchildren.

His sisters describe him as a family man who loved his kids.

Even though he struggled with addiction and had serious health issues in the past “he was doing really good for himself” before November of 2012, Naytowhow said.

Billy worked as a mechanic and a firefighter in Canoe Lake, up in Saskatchewan’s far north.

The handyman was always willing to lend a hand, Naytowhow said.

 “He used to go out of his way helping my parents with building the house.”

She laughed a bit remembering how much her brother loved going out on their parents’ trap lines.

 “We were all close-knit, all our family. When we would do something, we would do it together.”

With the inquest now over, Billy’s family is still grieving.

“I just can’t believe that happened to him,” Naytowhow said.

claskowski@panow.com

On Twitter: @chelsealaskowsk