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Piche family looking for help in legal fight

Nov 28, 2017 | 3:52 PM

 

MEDICINE HAT, AB — A local family’s legal fight hasn’t stopped.

Marc Piche and his wife, Julie, have been pushing to find answers as to how his brother Glenn died by suicide after being admitted to the psychiatric unit at the Medicine Hat Regional Hospital back in 2013.

A fatality inquiry was held earlier this year but the family said they’re going to keep fighting for the answers they never got.

“In sitting back and listening to all of it, we could see where mistakes were made but yet you can’t point fingers at an inquiry,” said Julie Piche, Glenn’s sister-in-law.

“In the inquiry, it seemed like everyone did their job accordingly,” she added.

But Judge Fred Fisher made nine recommendations he wanted made.

Seven of which were directed at Alberta Health Service, which Piche said shows the system needs work.

“For myself, personally, I was very emotional about it,” Piche said. “It brings up anger and everything else when you hear that this and this and this could be done.”

The family and their lawyer made the case to have cameras installed inside the rooms of the psychiatric unit, something Judge Fisher agreed with.

He is the fourth judge to make the same recommendation.

Chief Zone Officer for the South Zone with Alberta Health Service Katherine Chubbs wasn’t available for an interview but in a statement said, “We are finalizing our review of the recommendations and developing our action plan. We will share more information when we have it.”

In an email to the fatality inquiry coordinator, AHS said “A detailed response on any actions that will be undertaken on the 7 recommendations will be provided back to you by December 16th, 2017.”

Piche is eager to see if cameras will be included.

“I don’t think you need, like, a big honkin’ camera that needs to be out in the open or anything,” she said. “It’s just for people’s safety.”

Either way, the Piche family isn’t done fighting.

“We’ve kind of been pushing forward to see what the next step is,” she added.

The family came out of the inquiry saying they had more questions than before, which they’re determined to have answered.

But it’s all coming with a cost.

They’ve started a Go Fund Me page, hoping the public can help support their fight, which has now cost them more than $50,000.

“We want AHS to say, we want them to be accountable for what happened,” Piche said.