INQUEST CALLED INTO GIRL'S DEATH AT SICK KIDS

Died after being given morphine for severe leg pain
By Kellie Hudson, York Region Bureau

An inquest has been called into the death of a 10-year-old Thornhill girl who died almost a year ago at Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children.

Lisa Shore was admitted with severe leg pain the evening of Oct. 21, 1998.  Her leg had been bothering her since she broke it six months earlier.

She was given morphine in the emergency department and died just a few hours later.

Sharon Shore, 43, who has started a web page in her daughter's memory, believes her little girl died as a result of medical errors.

"Lisa didn't die because one person did one bad thing.  I think she died because a number of people made a lot of terrible mistakes, and there were problems in the system," she said in an interview yesterday.

Shore hopes the inquest, scheduled to start Nov. 8 in Toronto before Deputy Chief Coroner Jim Cairns, will give her family some answers.

"I have to learn why and how.  I have to hear what they have to say," she said, referring to staff at the hospital.  "I don't know if the problems have been fixed.  I'm afraid of that place.  There are so many wonderful things they do, but there are some not-so-wonderful things, too."

The Hospital for Sick Children would not comment on the details of the case or the impending inquest.

"Because it's a coroner's case, we won't comment until it's completed," hospital spokesperson Cyndy DeGiusti said.

Before she broke her leg playing in the school yard on Feb. 11, 1998, Lisa was a typical kid, her mother said.

She had lots of friends and loved swimming, rollerblading, biking and playing in the park.

An artist and animal lover, her dream was to be an architect, cartoonist or vet when she grew up.

Two days after she had a cast put on her leg, Lisa's toes turned purple and intense leg pain developed.

Changing the cast didn't work, and long after it was removed, she screamed in pain, particularly at night, Shore said.

Toronto doctors couldn't explain what was causing the excruciating pain, and recommended family counselling.

It wasn't until the family took Lisa to Boston's Children's Hospital that she was diagnosed with reflex sympathetic dystrophy, a rare condition marked by chronic burning pain that often starts with a minor injury such as a fracture or sprained ankle.

In the emergency department at Sick Kids that fateful night, Lisa received "a very, very high dosage of morphine," Shore said.

"She was on other medication, one of which is known to exacerbate the effects of morphine.  The doctor ordered her to be monitored.  She was not monitored," she said.

"The irony of the whole thing is that morphine didn't help her at all.  It didn't have any effect on her kind of pain."

The past year has been very difficult, Shore said, especially for Lisa's two younger brothers.

But the Web page has helped ease the pain, Shore said.

It has had 1,000 hits since she designed it in May.

Last spring, Lisa's classmates dedicated their school yearbook to her memory.

"She never said anything cruel to anybody.  She was just the sweetest person," her mother said.

"We get up every morning; we are coping.  Our lives are changed forever.  Our family doesn't feel like a family anymore."