WINNIPEG -- The head of security for a Winnipeg hospital says the reason why video cameras in the emergency room only showed a few seconds of a man who died while waiting 34 hours to be helped is because they were trained on people deemed to be security risks.
Norm Schatz told an inquest into the death of Brian Sinclair that security cameras are designed to help monitor problems and security risks throughout the department and the hospital.
Sinclair, who was 45, had been referred to the Health Sciences Centre in September 2008 because he hadn't urinated in 24 hours.
In video from a hospital surveillance camera, Sinclair is seen approaching the triage desk when he first arrives and talking briefly to a triage aide.
The triage aide writes something down on a piece of paper and Sinclair wheels himself into the waiting room, where he stayed for the next 34 hours, vomiting several times as his condition deteriorated, before he was discovered dead.
Schatz said the video camera, which was right above Sinclair in the waiting room, was pointed solely on three individuals watching television.
He said the guard monitoring the cameras, who could control in which direction they pointed, likely observed the three went to the waiting room without checking in to be triaged and appeared intoxicated.
"I call it often 'spidey sense' -- I'm going to put the camera on them to be on the safe side," Schatz said.
He said Sinclair, who was a double amputee and was in a wheelchair, wouldn't be seen as a troublemaker.
Schatz also testified that the reason there are numerous gaps in the security footage -- sometimes up to five or six minutes -- is because while the cameras are always operating, they stop recording when there has been no motion for 10 seconds. He said once movement is detected, they are able to go back and begin recording five seconds before the movement began.
Sinclair died from a treatable infection caused by a blocked catheter.
