Death of 23-year old Sophia was ‘preventable’ says Manly

Sophia, 23, was a worker at Nanaimo’s Unitarian Shelter, who died of an infection in November that shelter executive director and city councillor Paul Manly says was “completely preventable” had she had access to a family doctor. Photo provided.

Paul Manly, executive director of the Naniamo Unitarian Shelter, is speaking out after a 23-year old woman named Sophia — who worked at the shelter — died from an infection after struggling to access primary care.

“She was a real rising star young, 23 years old when she died. Just very bright, and, and very compassionate, and dedicated to her work,” he said. “She was really well liked by other staff and guests at the shelter.”

Sophia had been on a medical leave of absense from work when Manly heard from her mother in November that her daughter had died. Her mother asked Manly to help share Sofia’s story, but not her last name.

“We'd had some discussions with her and what we knew at the time was that she had contracted an infection,” he said. “It was caught too late and she had gone septic. By the time they got her the help she needed they had to airlift her to St. Paul's in Vancouver. She didn't last another day.”

Manly said that Sophia struggled to access the primary health care she needed.

“Sophia had sought help, she looked for a doctor, she'd gone down to the walk-in clinic, she stood in line, in a weakened condition, and was not able to get into the clinic,” said Manly, who noted that there is only one walk-in clinic in the city where 20,000 people don’t have a family doctor.

He said that Nanaimo’s only Urgent and Primary Care Clinic is reguarly overwhelmed with paitents.

“You can go down to that walk-in clinic and wait in line for a couple of hours and depending on how many people are in front of you, you may not get in for the day,” he said. “For somebody who's not well, that's just not appropriate, in any way, shape, or form.”

Manly said Sophia’s immune system was compromised, but she may not have died if she had a family doctor who could have diagnosed her condition earlier.

“What Sophia needed was a family doctor, who could send her to LifeLabs for a blood panel,” he said. “And if that had happened, she would have been fine, she would have shifts at the shelter this week.”

The Canadian Community Health Survey estimated that 883,008 people in B.C. did not have a family doctor in 2022.

Manly, who is also a city councillor in Nanaimo, said he hears from residents regularly about the lack of access to primary care.

“We see it all the time,” he said. “People going, ‘what's going on with this community? You only got one walk-in clinic here, don't have a family doctor, it takes forever to get in to see anybody.’ It's compromising people's health and it's costing lives.”

A statement from Island Health said that while it can’t comment on specific details due to patient privacy, it appears that Sophia had multiple patient visits, both in hospital and in the community.

Island Health said its Patient Care Quality Office has connected with Sophia’s family and will be reviewing her case to answer any questions the family has about her care.

The Ministry of Health did not respond to a request for comment on this story.

With files from Joe Pugh.

Funding Note: This story was produced with funding support from the Local Journalism Initiative, administered by the Community Radio Fund of Canada.