FORT FRANCES — The College of Nurses of Ontario has scheduled a disciplinary hearing for former local nurse Lindsey Coyle.
She's on day parole from a two-year jail sentence she received in January 2024 for criminal negligence causing the death of a patient in La Verendrye Hospital.
76-year-old Hermina Fletcher died in 2015 after Coyle altered the patient's medication record in order to obtain the opioid for her own use.
This resulted in Fletcher receiving a higher dose than she was prescribed, leading a forensic pathologist to conclude that on a balance of probabilities she died from acute morphine toxicity.
Coyle voluntarily surrendered her certificate of registration with the College of Nurses in 2016, and is not entitled to practise.
In a Notice of Hearing, the college alleges her falsification of a medication record "would reasonably be regarded by members as disgraceful, dishonourable or unprofessional" conduct.
A panel of the college's discipline committee will consider the allegation at an electronic hearing on August 21.
Nurses found to have engaged in professional misconduct are subject to one or more of several penalties including:
- revocation of registration
- suspension of registration
- an appearance before the panel to be reprimanded
- payment of a fine of up to $35,000 to the Minister of Finance
The member may also be required to pay the college's legal costs and expenses incurred while investigating the matter and conducting the hearing.
Coyle was first registered as a nurse in 2007.
