The family of a Vancouver Island boy who died last year after seeking emergency medical care says there needs to be urgent systemic change to make sure it never happens again.
Eleven-year-old Brayden Robbins presented to the North Island Hospital Emergency Department twice in one week in November 2024. The second time, it was clear something was terribly wrong — his body was stiff, he was in excruciating pain, and he was screaming in agony.
It was five hours before Brayden would be sent for a CT scan, but by then, he was already in a coma, and there was no helicopter available to take him urgently to the BC Children’s Hospital in Vancouver.
CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO 1130 NEWSRADIO VANCOUVER LIVE!Brayden died from a brain bleed shortly thereafter.
The boy’s grieving parents, his mother a registered nurse herself, met with Conservative Health Critic Brennan Day, and in a letter with the MLA addressed to the government, have outlined several action items to address what happened.
In the letter dated July 8, Day says that the Robbins family is asking for what “every British Columbian deserves: a health-care system that listens, responds, and acts in the best interest of patients — especially children in medical distress.”
Day says that despite the family’s fear and vulnerability that comes with speaking out, they have chosen to do so out of a “deep commitment to preventing further tragedies.”
“Our anger, hurt, sadness, and love for Brayden is telling us to move forward with sharing his/our story,” mother Nikki told Day. “The care Brayden received was not enough. It was not appropriate. And the consequences were fatal.”
According to Day and the family, Brayden’s medical emergency “wasn’t a rare or sudden event. This was a failure to act on clearly escalating symptoms, a failure to listen to clinical advocacy from the family, and a failure to follow best practices in pediatric emergency care.”
Day says the Robbins put their trust in the health-care system, and it failed them.
“We are heartbroken beyond words and carry with us an outrage that no parents should ever feel,” Nikki and father Marty Robbins state in the letter. “We do not want our son’s death to be in vain. Brayden deserved better. We all do.”
Brayden’s family is now demanding that the province make tangible changes. Amongst other measures, Brayden’s parents are demanding that the province:
- Implements mandatory regular pediatric emergency training
- Enacts family-centred communication protocols
- Addresses staffing shortages in pediatric transport services
- Prioritizes the hiring of pediatric-trained physicians and nurses in hospitals
“Brayden was a joyful, kind, and courageous 11-year-old boy. His future was full of promise. The grief of his death and not having him in our lives is magnified by the knowledge that his death was preventable,” the Robbins said.
“We live with the trauma of having our concerns ignored and our advocacy dismissed. It has deeply eroded our faith in the system we relied upon for help and care. The emotional toll is immeasurable, and its effects will remain with our family forever.”
Brayden’s death is a systemic failure: B.C. health critic
Speaking to 1130 NewsRadio on Tuesday, Day says he wants to make it very clear that the burden of Brayden’s death is not on the individual doctors or nurses at North Island Hospital.
“This is clearly a systemic failure that rides on the back of under-staffing that is chronic across our health-care system currently,” Day said.
Day points to nurse-to-patient ratios that could be pushed to 1:30 in some settings, saying it’s unmanageable and things will be missed.
“And when things get missed, unfortunately, in the health-care system, there can be very tragic consequences like the one with Brayden,” Day said.
Day says that as the province moves toward centralized care at regional centres and regional hospitals, it leaves part of rural B.C. behind.
“When we move to that model and centralize care, we need to make sure that the BCEHS (British Columbia Emergency Health Services) system and our medical evacuation system is up to task, and the reality is that BCEHS is drastically understaffed with medical transport teams, as was the case in a medical transport team shortage in the Interior,” he said.
“When we start to rely on moving patients to care rather than bringing care to patients, we have to make sure that that system works, and currently it is absolutely not working,” he stated.
While Day believes Health Minister Josie Osborne takes serious cases like Brayden’s “personally,” Day believes she needs to “rein in the bureaucracy that is more focused on protecting the system than protecting patients in this province.”
“And that takes leadership from the Ministry,” Day said.
BC Nurses’ Union President Adriane Gear agrees that understaffing is a critical issue.
“What we’re experiencing around the province is a shortage of nurses in all care areas. It’s certainly not limited to emergency rooms,” Gear explains.
“You do need to have enough nurses in the system that are not only able to respond to the sort of typical needs of a community, but you need to build in some redundancy to ensure that there’s adequate staff for patient transfers.”
She says the union has successfully negotiated for improved nurse-to-patient ratios but adds those haven’t yet been implemented.
B.C. is working through Phase 1, which she explains means improving ratios in surgical units, intensive care units, and focus care units, before it can look at emergency rooms in Phase 2.
“To be successful, we need to recruit many, many more nurses to this province…To work in some areas, you require certain qualifications, and so we need to recruit — and in many cases, train up nurses to have emergency room-qualified credentials so that they can triage, so that they can respond to traumas, so that they can do the resuscitations. And so it’s not just a nurse game. We not only need nurses, but we need qualified nurses to do this very important work.
Review of Brayden’s death underway: Ministry of Health
In a statement to 1130 NewsRadio, Osborne says her heart “goes out” to Brayden’s family and loved ones.
“No parent should ever have to experience the loss of a child, and the pain that Brayden’s parents are feeling is unimaginable for almost all of us,” she said.
Osborne says a multi-agency review of Brayden’s case is already underway, and includes Island Health, BC Emergency Health Services, BC Children’s Hospital, and Child Health BC.
“We must learn from tragic cases like these and do everything possible to avoid another family having to go through what Brayden’s family is experiencing. It is critical that a thorough review is completed to examine what happened and how the system can do better,” Osborne said.
“It is my expectation that the family’s input be a part of this review. Action has also already been taken to strengthen BCEHS’ capacity to transport patients in need with the addition of a new night shift Critical Care Paramedic operating in the region, as of July 1st.”