THUNDER BAY - The family of 76-year-old Hermina Fletcher, who died in a Fort Frances hospital in 2015, called on ex-nurse Lindsey Coyle to take responsibility for purposely changing her medication record to steal morphine for her own personal use, an action that Fletcher’s granddaughter called ‘inexplicably evil.’
“Who could I have been if I hadn’t been forced to experience such trauma that was so inexplicably evil?” asked Hermina Fletcher’s granddaughter, Melissa Fletcher. “Why have I been forced to relive these painful and traumatic memories, while Lindsey has yet to account for any of her disgusting, unforgiveable, and deplorable actions?”
“I really hope there is one tiny bit of decency in your soul and you take full responsibility and accountability for your actions and accept the maximum sentence in the court system. Beg for more if you can,” said Hermina Fletcher’s son, Melvin Fletcher.
Lindsey Coyle, 38, stared straight ahead in a Fort Frances courtroom as eight members of Fletcher’s family read in victim impact statements before Justice Pieter Joubert during a sentencing submission hearing on Monday.
The hearing comes just shy of the one-year anniversary of Coyle pleading guilty to one count of criminal negligence causing death and one count of failing to comply with a release order.
According to the agreed statement of facts read into the court record on Aug. 29, 2022, Fletcher was admitted to the La Verendrye Hospital in Fort Frances on Dec. 20, 2014.
Coyle, who was employed as a registered practical nurse at La Verendrye Hospital at the time, purposely changed Fletcher’s medication administration report, increasing the dosage of daily morphine and not administering it in order to steal it for her own personal use.
As a result of the changed report, which was left with the increased dosage, Fletcher received two 10 milligram doses of morphine the evening of Jan. 3, 2015.
Fletcher lost consciousness that night and passed away the next day on Jan. 4, 2015 at 6 a.m. A forensic pathologist said in a report that on the balance of probabilities, Fletcher died as a result of acute morphine toxicity.
It was discovered that Coyle was responsible for missing morphine at the hospital and she admitted to being ‘high as a kite’ while working as a nurse. Coyle was terminated from her position at the hospital on Jan. 28, 2015 and a year later she surrendered her nursing license.
Following an investigation by the Ontario Provincial Police, Coyle was charged with second-degree murder four years later in August 2019. In August 2022, Coyle pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of criminal negligence causing death.
During the hearing on Monday, family members of Fletcher described her as a loving, kind, and caring woman and her tragic loss has left them all with an enormous sense of loss.
“To say the death of my grandmother has been difficult would be an understatement,” Melissa Fletcher said. “Any time I think of a happy memory of my grandmother, I think about the needless and selfish reason she had to die.”
There was a profound sense of frustration expressed by family members regarding a perceived lack of remorse by Coyle and the time it has taken to receive any sense of closure or justice. It was noted that Hermina Fletcher's husband, Mel, passed away before the guilty plea was entered.
“I am so mad that I have to be here today. It is embarrassing that this has carried on for so long,” Melissa Fletcher said. “Am I very frustrated that one selfless, careless, heartless person has disrupted my life so much. She just didn’t torture grandma, she tortured all of us.”
Melvin Fletcher added that he has not seen a single expression of remorse from Coyle, who he described as a selfish and entitled person.
“I did see how you smiled when you turned and talked to the people behind you when you plead guilty,” he said. “I had a hard time to hold my anger in. I can’t believe you don’t even have the common sense to fake any kind of remorse.”
Coyle’s actions also shattered any sense of trust in medical institutions for members of Hermina Fletcher’s family, who say they feel nervous, anxious, and stressed any time dealing with nurses or hospital staff.
While the family of Hermina Fletcher do not believe Coyle will change nor can they find it within themselves to forgive her for her actions, they do believe there was someone who could have.
“There is only one person who could forgive you for your selfish choices and that is grandma, Hermina,” Melissa Fletcher said. “Because that is the kind of person she was.”
Defence seeks suspended sentence
Defence counsel Barry Sinder is seeking a three-year suspended sentence for Coyle, arguing that she has expressed remorse in the pre-sentence report and that her moral culpability is reduced due to the fact that she was struggling with an addiction and other hospital staff did not catch the incorrect medication administration report.
Sinder also noted that Coyle pleading guilty to the charge of negligence causing death demonstrates she is taking responsibility for her actions.
“We are all aware in the administration of justice that the standard of proof in a criminal prosecution is proof beyond reasonable doubt,” Sinder said, noting that the forensic pathologist found Fletcher died of morphine toxicity ‘on the balance of probabilities.’
“Notwithstanding that, Ms. Coyle elected to not only enter a guilty plea, but to acknowledge that there is a potential sentence to be argued by the Crown of two years jail.”
A pre-sentence report prepared prior to sentencing also contained what Sinder called expressions of remorse from Coyle, with her citing the impact on her family and the Fletcher family, as well as letters of support from family and friends.
Regarding Coyle’s actions, Sinder referenced her addiction and admission that she would be high while working, which reduces her moral culpability for not changing the medication administration form back to the original dosage.
“She is a morphine addict, she is on morphine while working and obviously to hide the amount of morphine she was using on the job, she did not change that prescription when she left her shift,” Sinder said.
Sinder also directed attention toward other hospital staff, claiming that they did not notice the increased morphine dosage, which he said also lowers Coyle’s blameworthiness.
“So the only important element in this that I say is mitigating and reduces Ms. Coyle’s culpability, is the intervening action or non-action of others who did not, I would suggest, common sense follow necessary protocol to determine if this was the medication we should continue with,” Sinder argued.
Crown calling for jail time
Crown attorney David Kirk took issue with many of the defense’s claims and argued a term of two years in custody is the only way to achieve the sentencing principals of deterrence and denunciation.
Referencing the pre-sentence report, Kirk said Coyle’s expressions of remorse were more self-serving than the defence was letting on.
“The quotation attributed to the offender in the pre-sentence report, you did not hear it in its entirety,” he said. “What it read was this: ‘I am remorseful every day. I lost everything. I’ve gone through so much. My family was ripped apart. The victim’s family was ripped apart.’ Of note, the effect on the victims is equated to the same harm to her and her family.”
Kirk also took issue with the defence’s claims that other hospital staff not correcting the morphine dosage reduces Coyle’s moral culpability.
“To suggest that the other nurse coming in to replace the offender bears some responsibility to the death of Hermina is repugnant,” Kirk said.
Coyle’s treatment of narcotics at the hospital as her “own personal dispensary” and the prolonged period during which she put patients at risk including the multitude of decisions she made on Jan. 3, 2015 that shows “enhanced and reckless disregard” for the health and life of Hermina Fletcher, who was a vulnerable victim, Kirk argued requires a denunciatory sentence.
“This case calls for a sentence of real jail. Nothing short of that can reflect the gravity of the circumstances of this case,” Kirk said. “Simply, a suspended sentence is of no consequence for the actions that have taken place.”
When given the opportunity to speak, Coyle said she has been wanting to address these issues for many years, including the what she called: “a great regret I have to the mistakes I made during my time of employment as a nurse.”
Coyle said at no point did she ever envision herself as an addict and that she takes full responsibility for her actions.
She added that she wanted to speak to the incident in 2017 after learning she was under investigation but that she: “signed a document with the hospital that did not allow me to.”
“I hope that moving forward I can only make better decisions and I am given the opportunity to do that for my children,” she said. “I would just like to apologize one more time to my community, my co-workers and patients, and the families. I know that’s not good enough but that’s what I have to say.”
The matter will return on Sept. 12, 2023 to set a date for Joubert’s decision on sentence, which is expected in either October or November.
