FORT FRANCES — A former Fort Frances nurse who pleaded guilty to charges relating to her role in the 2015 death of 76-year-old Hermina Fletcher will not be sentenced until August 2023.
A hearing was held in a Fort Frances courtroom on Tuesday for Lindsey Coyle, with Crown and defense counsel setting a sentencing date of Aug. 28, 2023.
The sentencing will take place nearly one year to the day from when Coyle pleaded guilty to charges of criminal negligence causing death and failing to comply with a release order.
The plea was entered on Aug. 29, 2022, and came three years after Coyle was first arrested and charged.
The charges relate to an incident at the La Verendrye Hospital in Fort Frances in January 2015. Coyle was employed as a registered practical nurse at the time and was working on Jan. 3, 2015.
Fletcher was previously admitted to La Verendrye Hosptial on Dec. 20, 2014 and her care was considered palliative. Her physician noted she was to be given two to four milligrams of morphine intravenously, which was changed to two to five milligrams administered subcutaneously on Jan. 1, 2015.
During her shift on Jan. 3, Coyle wrote over Fletcher’s medication administration report, changing the prescribed dosage of two to five milligrams of morphine to read five to 10 milligrams.
Coyle was the nurse withdrawing the morphine on the drug record and the court heard she had changed Fletcher’s medication administration report in order to steal the morphine to feed her own addiction.
On Jan. 3, 2015, Fletcher was administered seven 10 milligram doses of morphine between 8 a.m. and 7:30 p.m. and two more doses at 9:30 p.m. and 1:30 a.m.
Fletcher began to lose consciousness that night and she died at approximately 6 a.m. the next morning.
The regional coroner ruled that Fletcher’s death was, on the balance of probabilities, the result of acute morphine toxicity.
An investigation was launched by the Ontario Provincial Police, resulting in Coyle being arrested in August 2019 and initially charged with second-degree murder.
Coyle had already been terminated from her position as a nurse at La Verendrye Hospital in January 2015. She admitted to stealing morphine for her own use and using the drug while on duty.
A pre-sentence report was ordered following the guilty plea but it was still not completed as of the hearing on Tuesday.
Douglas Judson, counsel on behalf of Fletcher’s family members, said in a statement that the family has been waiting years for justice while Coyle continues to live freely on bail.
“Having already agreed to an insulting plea bargain for Ms. Coyle’s heinous and disgusting actions, how much longer is the Crown going to delay justice for Ms. Fletcher’s surviving family?” the statement reads. “How many more excuses will be made in the prosecution of these serious and disturbing crimes?”
A $3 million civil suit was filed by Fletcher’s family in April 2021 against Coyle and Riverside Health Care Facilities, which operates La Verendrye Hospital.
