CANADIAN CHILDREN ARE
IN DANGER OF HEALTH CARE AND GOVERNMENT NEGLECT!!!
Part of the population knows that health care in Canada is a
giant commercial business operated by doctors and essentially a great profit for
the large pharmaceutics companies. Not only the parents of the deceased 12
years old Chazz Petrella, recognized that children who badly need medical care
in hospitals and mental care facilities across the country, are not safe, they
are in complete in danger. As well is necessary to be investigating about the
changes and destruction of children behavior in especially elementary public schools.
The hope of the Petrella’s parents for medical care and the life of little Chazz
come to an end, when the boy was placed under the care of the criminal
organizations that are specialized in child trafficking for profit as are the
Children’s Aid Societies. The Canadian government and the mainstream media are
accomplices for the kidnapping, torture and death of children and youths under
the care and control of the government and private institutions.
Years of interactions with health
services couldn’t save Chazz Petrella, and his parents are left wishing for a
fuller investigation.
Frank Petrella and Janet Petrella-Ashby, at home in Cobourg.
Their son, Chazz, committed suicide at age 12 after being bounced between
various schools and mental health services. They are calling for a coroner's
inquest. (FRED THORNHILL)
By Jacques GallantStaff Reporter
Sat., Aug. 6, 2016
Two years after 12-year-old Chazz Petrella hanged himself from a
tree in his backyard — following years of being bounced around between various
schools, hospitals and mental health services — his parents have learned there
will not be a coroner’s inquest into his death.
“If his care had been good, we wouldn’t
be in this position in the first place,” said his mother, Janet Petrella-Ashby.
“For us, it’s extremely surprising that
they’re not going to call an inquest, and that it took two years to decide. An
inquest could have been called and completed by now.”
The family has received messages of
support from many individuals, including politicians and the Provincial
Advocate for Children and Youth, since sharing their story two years ago
following the death of Chazz.
They had been anxiously waiting for a
positive decision from the coroner’s office. The family says Ontario’s
mental-health system failed them horribly, and they were hoping to learn how
that happened and to ensure no other family has to have a similar experience.
The Petrellas say they continue to
believe there is a lack of funding, training and co-ordination between the
various agencies and argue their concerns could have been probed publicly and
addressed through recommendations from an inquest jury.
“With so many aspects in his case, it’s
difficult to imagine that they can’t find at least one aspect that could be
improved upon in an inquest,” Petrella-Ashby said on the phone from the family
home in Cobourg.
“I believe there’s a lot to be learned
from Chazz’s case that an inquest could have opened the door to,” adds Chazz’s
father, Frank Petrella.
The youngest of five children, Chazz’s
behaviour changed dramatically as he moved through elementary school. He had
fits of rage at the smallest problem, such as a lost Internet connection, and
he would swear and throw things.
He would cut the cords to the home
alarm system that rang every time a door or window was opened; he would
sometimes go missing for days.
On one trip to the hospital in Oshawa,
he tried to jump out of the car being driven by his sister on Highway 401. It
took six police officers to subdue him, as adrenaline coursed through his small
body.
Within the span of about two years, he
bounced around between regular and sectioned classrooms, child and family
services in Peterborough, a rural treatment centre and then back home.
Chazz Petrella died by suicide in late August after years of
suffering from mental illness. His parents are calling on the provincial
coroner to open an inquest into the circumstances that led up to Chazz's death,
saying problem within the young mental health system kept their son from
receiving viable treatment options.
In August 2014, Chazz tragically took
his own life.
Today, his parents are asking the Chief
Coroner of Ontario, Dr. Dirk Huyer, to reconsider the decision not to hold an
inquest, which was initially made by the regional supervising coroner based in
Kingston.
“After waiting patiently and in good
faith for almost two years, why do my clients or the public not know the
answers to the very obvious questions that arise from Chazz’s death?” says a
letter sent to Huyer from the family’s lawyer, Julie Kirkpatrick.
“My clients again ask you to recognize
that a public inquest into the complete circumstances surrounding Chazz’s death
is the only mechanism that will achieve a reliable factual foundation for meaningful
recommendations to be made by a jury of individuals who have not emerged from,
worked within or become invested in the very system that failed Chazz and his
family.”
A coroner’s office spokeswoman said an
inquest is considered in every death investigation, and one is sometimes
required by law, such as a death on a construction site or while in police
custody. The office conducts about 15,000 death investigations per year.
“Further, inquests are conducted in the
public interest and not in the private interest,” said spokeswoman Cheryl
Mahyr, speaking generally. “If there is no perceived benefit to the public,
then an inquest would not be held.”
In his letter outlining to the family
and their lawyer why no inquest would be held, regional supervising coroner Dr.
Paul Dungey suggested that aside from an inquest, there are other methods
available at the coroner’s office to improve the system.
He highlighted that Chazz’s death was
reviewed by the Pediatric Death Review Committee (PDRC), which probes the deaths
of all children who had been receiving services from a children’s aid society
within a year of their death. (The CAS was one of many agencies the Petrellas
contacted for help.)
In Chazz’s case, the committee also
asked an Ontario children’s mental health expert for a supplementary report.
“I want to acknowledge the complexity
of this case and the difficulties this family had in navigating and accessing
care for their son,” Dungey told Kirkpatrick in the letter. “I am not refuting
your raised concern that the child and youth mental health care system and the
ability to access it can be improved upon.”
Dungey would not be commenting beyond
the letter due to privacy considerations, said a coroner’s office spokeswoman.
He told Kirkpatrick in his letter that
the committee and the expert made several recommendations, such as having the
Ministry of Health enhance training for doctors and other emergency room staff
in the assessment of suicide risk; improving the difficulty in understanding
the available mental health services for children and youth; and “improved
communication and collaboration” between child and youth agencies.
“It is my opinion that a jury presented
with the circumstances of Chazz’s death would not make any additional, useful
recommendations that would prevent deaths in similar circumstances,” Dungey
wrote.
“The recommendations that have been
made by the PDRC and the supplementary report are of a high standard; they are
focused, reasonable and implementable and are consistent with those we would
expect from an inquest jury examining Chazz’s death.”
But as noted by the family, the
committee is mainly comprised of child-welfare consultants, children’s aid
society officials and members of police services, and operates behind closed
doors, unlike an inquest. Its reports are also not made public, but are shared
with the family.
Kirkpatrick points out in her letter to
Huyer that the family wants a jury of objective citizens at an inquest “to take
a deep and careful look at what actually went so terribly wrong for Chazz.”
The family wants a full, public hearing
of the case, and so took issue with Dungey’s statement in his letter that
Chazz’s parents “have previously made the events surrounding his death and
aspects of his interactions with the system of care public through contact with
media providers.”
As Frank Petrella pointed out in an
interview with the Star: “We didn’t seek out the media. The media sought us
out. Not only did the media find the story troubling, but so did thousands of
people who reached out and wanted to know how and why.”
They disagree with many of the
committee’s findings, including that adequate psychiatric assessment services
were made available to Chazz and that the suggested medications were
“sensible.”
There was never a clear diagnosis, and
the boy never got the comprehensive testing he should have received as soon as
his behaviour began to spiral out of control, his family says.
Petrella-Ashby took Chazz to the
hospital twice on the night before he died, because he had punched a wall and
injured his hand. He received a cast on the first visit, but they had to return
after Chazz gnawed through it.
Instead of Chazz being kept in the
hospital, as his mother requested, he was given a sedative and sent home.
Dungey said in his letter to
Kirkpatrick that she was correct in stating that Chazz, who stood at just over
five feet and weighed 89 pounds, was given twice the daily adult dose of the
sedative and that it is not recommended for people under 18. The family continues
to question whether it led to his suicide.
Dungey also stated in the letter that
his office requested that the hospital review the care Chazz received.
Ontario’s advocate for children and
youth, Irwin Elman, said Chazz’s case is crying out for an inquest. He has also
written to the chief coroner.
“I can’t see an inquest at this point
in time that would be of more interest to the public than the heroic battle
that families and children struggling with mental health issues take on each
and every day,” he said. “There are so many families in this province touched
by that battle.”
“The soul is healed by being
with children."
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