With legal proceedings full towards a girl who posed as a nurse in a B.C. hospital for greater than a 12 months, her victims can now flip their consideration to a civil go well with as they search justice.
Final week, Brigitte Cleroux was sentenced to seven years in jail for working as a nurse at B.C. Ladies’s Hospital below stolen credentials.
It’s estimated she interacted with greater than 1,100 sufferers throughout her time on the hospital.
These victims have launched a category motion lawsuit naming the Provincial Well being Companies Authority, which operates the hospital, alleging breach of privateness and vicarious legal responsibility.
Considered one of Cleroux’s victims, who can’t be recognized due to a publication ban, attended her sentencing listening to final week seeking closure.
She informed International Information that whereas she is completely happy the legal chapter of the case is now over, she nonetheless carries trauma about what occurred to her — and the well being authority’s response to it.
“I nonetheless don’t perceive how BC Ladies’s allowed her to be there for that lengthy and have so many complaints towards her, and nonetheless allowed her not solely to observe on folks in a gynecology ward,” she stated.
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“It form of upsets me extra questioning why this took this lengthy, how she was in a position to do that for this lengthy, and clearly there’s a crack within the system for this to occur this lengthy.”
The PHSA refuses to touch upon the case.
In a press release, it stated, “Whereas we perceive the sentencing has occurred, there stay excellent authorized issues with respect to this example.”
In prior authorized filings within the civil go well with, the well being authority denied it had tried to evade any duty within the incident.
Nevertheless it argued it shouldn’t be chargeable for “Cleroux’s fraud,” which it stated was “abhorrent, [and] unauthorized.”
“Cleroux intentionally defrauded and deceived PHSA with the intention to achieve employment,” the PHSA stated in a June 2022 submitting, including her declare that her nursing registration quantity wasn’t instantly obtainable as a result of she had moved from Ontario wasn’t uncommon, and that it had verified a nurse with the title Cleroux was working below was licenced in B.C.
The sufferer International Information spoke with stated when she adopted up with the well being authority after being knowledgeable she had been handled by Cleroux, the individual she spoke with was “very nonchalant, very chilly.”
“There’s no fault, nothing occurred, none of us died so all the things is OK. It was surprising,” she stated.
“Clearly there’s a break within the system and I hope they’re additionally held accountable for what they did to all of us, as a result of it’s due to them she was capable of work there, not just for sooner or later however for over a 12 months.”
Within the meantime, the sufferer stated she continues to wrestle with post-traumatic stress syndrome and has been left with ongoing mistrust of the medical system.
“Going to medical appointments is terrifying,” she stated.
“I’ve full-blown panic assaults, anxiousness, I’ve to hold round treatment with me in case these come up. It’s positively modified my life endlessly.”
In partially certifying the category motion go well with in July 2023, a B.C. Supreme Courtroom decide additionally dominated that as a result of Cleroux interacted with so many sufferers in numerous capacities, leading to broadly completely different experiences, extra allegations of negligence and battery ought to be pursued as particular person authorized actions moderately than as a category.
It stays unclear when the civil go well with will go to trial.
© 2024 International Information, a division of Corus Leisure Inc.
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