B.C. father blames misdiagnosis for 20-year-old son’s ‘preventable’ death

It was only a week ago that Justin Hamilton’s son Rowan came to his parents to report feeling unwell, saying he thought he might need to see a doctor.

“Rowan had explained to us that he, to myself and his mother, that he had a rapid heart rate, especially when he was going to stand up,” Hamilton said.

“His vision would blur, get dark. He had a greenish mucus, blood in the mucus. Shortness, extreme shortness of breath, like really tight chest and, you know, it was enough for him to come to us and, you know, express concern and he wanted us to create, you know, if we could set an appointment for him, to go to the doctor.”

Hamilton said his wife took 20-year-old Rowan to urgent care first, where they immediately sent him over to Surrey Memorial Hospital’s emergency room as the urgent care was flooded.

Rowan saw a doctor in the emergency room, told him his symptoms, and the doctor said they suspected Rowan might have pneumonia.

They then sent him back to urgent care to get an X-ray and after the doctor reviewed it, he told Rowan he didn’t have pneumonia, Hamilton said.

“He didn’t do any other evaluations into Rowan’s other symptoms, shortness of breath, you know, a heart rate that rapidly increases every time he tries to stand up,” Hamilton added.

“His vision would get blurry and dark as he’s exerting himself and exerting, I mean, like walking. And he didn’t look into any of those things. He sent him home with antibiotics for an ailment that he never identified. He sent them home with a prescription for antibiotics for an ailment he never tested for.”

The next day, Rowan went to work but was only there for about 30 minutes before he collapsed unconscious.

“His heart stopped as they were loading him into the ambulance,” Hamilton said.

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The team determined he needed the Advanced Life Support unit, which arrived, and Rowan was transported to Surrey Memorial Hospital again.

Hamilton said it then took them 20 minutes to get in touch with Royal Columbian Hospital and get Rowan accepted there.

“It took them 20 minutes to get into the ambulance with the paramedics who were already there waiting on standby,” Hamilton said.

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“It took another 25 minutes for them to go from the Surrey Memorial Hospital to the Royal Columbian Hospital, where he was accepted.”

Once Rowan arrived at the hospital, he was put on an ECMO machine, which does the work of a person’s heart and lungs.

Hamilton said it was about 90 minutes from when the ambulance picked up his son from his work and he was hooked up to that machine at Royal Columbian.

“The way we understand it is that he was, they diagnosed PEA, he had Pulseless Electrical Activity,” Hamilton said.

“The ambulance, the paramedics determined that when he was collected. This means that they can’t use the paddles to shock you and jump-start your heart again. Once he got to Surrey Memorial, the protocol, as we understand it, is that they do a couple rounds to try to get sustained rhythms, to get your pulse going, your heart going. After a couple of rounds, if the time is there, if there’s enough time, is to send him over to Royal Columbian.”

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Hamilton said the staff at Royal Columbian knew the odds were stacked against his son but they did what they could to save him.

“What we were told by those at Royal Columbian is that they were able to look at his charts, the information that Rowan provided on Nov. 18, that he had a — I’m going to butcher it — basically blood clots in the lungs, which is causing enlargement of his heart,” Hamilton added.

A later CT scan showed blood clots in his lungs and Hamilton said they were told that if the doctors at Surrey Memorial had looked at his son’s charts on Nov. 18, they could have diagnosed him correctly.

Rowan was kept on life support and a medically induced hypothermic state on Nov. 19 to try and bring the swelling in his brain down, but when they did a CT scan on the morning of the 20th, Hamilton said it showed his son was virtually brain dead.

“I’m not sure what the process is there, but they kept him in support and they gave him every fighting chance until his vital organs failed, and he was pronounced brain dead at 2:21 on the 20th,” Hamilton said.

“Part that sticks with me is they told us it was preventable, they told us that this should have been caught. On the 18th.”

Fraser Health told Global News it is doing a full investigation into Rowan’s death.

“We have a process to conduct a thorough review of every step of the way,” Dr. Marietta Van Den Berg, the site medical director at Surrey Memorial Hospital, said.

“It will end in a quality review attended by everyone involved.”

Hamilton said he is just trying to hold it together and be strong for his son.

“Rowan still would be with us if our system was functioning,” he said.

“Our medical practitioners, our doctors, our nurses, our paramedics, these people need support. Surrey Memorial Hospital is a mess.

“Plain and simple, and it’s not because there’s not good people there. There are good people.”

A GoFundMe has been set up for Rowan’s family.