There is a renewed call for changes to be made to the Northern Patient Transfer Program following the death of a man earlier this month while en route to Winnipeg. 

 

58-year-old Abraham Donkey, from NCN, was travelling by bus to Winnipeg for a doctors appointment on October third when he became unresponsive and passed away when the bus was near Fairford. 

 

Ramona Neckoway, Donkey’s niece, said that she told workers at Thompson General a week before that trip that he should not be travelling alone, as well as the facts that his first language was not English and that he had a hard time hearing. 

 

She said that his request for an escort on the trip was denied, and that he wasn’t offered a flight to Winnipeg despite having recently had stents put in his heart. 

 

Neckoway added that a flight should have been the first choice, and that you don’t send a heart patient on a 10 hour bus ride. 

 

Cameron Friesen, the health minister for Manitoba, said that his department is reviewing the specifics of the case.