REGINA — A sense of relief was seen from the family of Samwel Uko following the verdict in his inquest on Friday afternoon.
After roughly four hours of deliberations, the six-person jury came back with the determinations that Samwel Taban Daudau Uko died on May 21, 2020, between 2100 and 2125 hours.
The location of his death was Wascana Lake. The cause of death was consistent with drowning due to submerging in water (lake). The manner of the death was undetermined.
The jury has also provided 20 recommendations to avoid similar incidents in the future. Two of the key findings the family members found important were recommendations four and six.
Recommendation four was to provide cultural diversity training including but not limited to institutionalized racism, internalized racism, unconscious bias and micro aggression.
Recommendation six called for a reassessment of interview questions and processes to incorporate, if not included, diversity, mental health and biases.
At a news conference following the decision, the family made it known they agreed with all of the 20 recommendations made. Uko’s uncle Justin Nyee pointed to those two recommendations on diversity in particular as confirming his belief that racism was behind what had happened to Samwel on May 21, 2020.
“They saw what we saw. You don’t need to be blind to see the racism component of what happened to Samwel. They saw it. And for the last five days the hospital had been dodging the question of anti-racism, diversity,” said Nyee.
Samwel’s death had followed a day when he sought admission twice at Regina General Hospital. On the second occasion, registration was unable to register Samwel because they could not confirm his name, and Samwel was eventually removed by security without having being diagnosed or seeing a doctor.
“They’re not medical professionals. They’re just ordinary people who sit in a room and heard all the people come in and said no, there is a racism component to this, and they put it there, and I was relieved to hear that.”
The family had been critical at times during the week about what they had heard during the inquest, but they had made it known on Friday both at a morning news conference and then after the verdict was read that they always had confidence that the jury would come back with the right decision.
“I know one of your questions this morning was whether we have faith in the jury,” said Muna DeCiman, a family friend.
“We told you we say yes we do, because we know they have common sense.”
“I put my faith in them,” Nyee said, “and I knew if they saw someone as a human, they will come out and re-affirm my belief that this was only because he was black. And they did that.”
Other recommendations included the following:
- consultations regarding the emergency layout;
- incorporating patient dignity into the daily huddles and meetings;
- providing mental health training to all staff, including non-medical staff;
- having all staff in emergency trained in de-escalation tactics;
- solicit input from all staff regarding communication of new or changed policies;
- input from all staff regarding dedicated paid time to review policy;
- distinguish all medical staff from non-medical staff;
- have a psychiatric nurse on 24/7;
- ensure there are two nurses at triage at all times;
- ensure the patient’s identity is verified at any point of contact;
- examine the possibility of adding one point of authority between triad protective services and registration;
- have a police officer on site 24-7 in emergency;
- ensure Regina police and RCMP fill out Form 4(a), regardless of reason of handoff;
- provide a visual aid to explain the ER process;
- one on one training at registration desk;
- educate the public on the “stop the line” policy and emergency room process;
- provide a pamphlet on mental health including but not limited to emergency health lines, emergency health group or therapy; and
- informing the registration clerks they have the ability to pass along any information they deem important.
After the jury rendered their decision in the hearing room, members of Uko family stood to thank and hug each of the six jury members as they departed the hearing room at Ramada Plaza.
Regarding the recommendations, Nyee said “I agree with every single one of them.”
Uko’s father, Taban Daudau Uko, said at the news conference he hoped the Regina General Hospital and the government would take the recommendations seriously.
The family had been of the belief that the manner of death was a suicide. But while that was an option put to the jury, they instead ruled the manner of death as “undetermined.” Uko’s family did not take issue with that determination when asked by reporters.
“We are not medical professionals,” Nyee said. “If the finding was he died because of drowning, that’s what we go with.”
The family plans to continue to advocate for mental health and plan to advocate for others.
Nyee again reaffirmed the family would be returning the $81,000 settlement the family had received from their civil case against Saskatchewan Health Authority.
