In September 2023, Trena Hafke was with her father during his final days in Neqotkuk First Nation in New Brunswick. He was sick. Diagnosed with terminal cancer.
“Dad didn’t want to go because he wanted to live out the remainder of his time at home,” Hafke told APTN News. “He didn’t want to be in hospital where any invasive procedures would happen, he just wanted to be able to die peacefully.”
One night, he experienced breathing problems. Hafke reached for the phone and called the province’s health care program that provides services at home to request a visit from a nurse.
She received a call back and to her surprise, the nurse refused to enter the community.
“I wasn’t sure what I heard,” Hafke said. “I wanted to clarify… I’ve never experienced discrimination like this ever so I asked again, I just saying ‘you don’t want to come into my community after dark in the middle of the night?’ and she said ‘well yeah in the middle of the night.’”
According to Hafke, the nurse on the phone had another suggestion – to send paramedics instead, “’Because they can come in pairs, and I’m not supposed to go alone.’ [This] should have raised a red flag, didn’t because I’ve never experienced this type of situation before,” Hafke said.
Paramedics did come and attend to her father. They took him to a nearby hospital where he became unconscious. The next day he was returned home but never regained consciousness.
Four days later, he died.
“By her refusing to come into the community that evening she took that choice away from my dad and she took that choice away from me and so I take that really hard,” said Hafke, the youngest of five siblings.
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Neqotkuk, formerly Tobique, is a community of 2,500 located near the border with Maine – about 150 km northwest of Fredericton.
It has a community health centre but it doesn’t provide 24 hour care.
Denna Sappeir, the health director, said the incident could’ve been prevented.
“The province has a duty to respond to our communities and if they feel that there is a safety issue for whatever reason, and I know Trena’s family, there’s no safety issue there, they have to communicate that with us and we have to come and discuss you know plans to move forward and how to mitigate that,” she said.
Hafke filed a complaint with the Nurses Association of New Brunswick on Oct. 31, 2024.
According to the complaint’s committee decision, “The nurse admitted to refusing to visit a patient in respiratory distress at his residence after dark to perform an assessment because his residence was in an Indigenous community.”
The committee said the nurse also admitted to violating New Brunswick’s nursing standards and ethics “that stipulates that nurses must refrain from discriminating based on a person’s race, ethnicity, culture, place of origin, or any other attribute.”
Chief Ross Perley said he doesn’t blame the nurse – but the systemic racism in the province’s health care system.
“So where do we go from here? I’m hoping the new government changes their unwritten policies and make sure that Indigenous people all over the province get the equal services that they deserve and have a right to,” he told APTN.
The nursing association suspended the nurse for two months and ordered her to take remedial education related to Indigenous reconciliation awareness.
The association said she was made aware that there are no restrictions on visiting a community at any time.
She also apologized to the family – but not directly. She wrote it to the committee in response to the report.
Hafke said that’s not enough.
“You know it was my hope that her license would be revoked, it was my hope that she would no longer be able to practise,” she said.
Hafke said she and her siblings have contacted a lawyer to discuss their legal options.
