Juliette Tapaquon spent her final months in unimaginable pain. It’s the thought that still keeps her mother, Joyce Tapaquon, up at night.
A cervical cancer patient at Pasqua Hospital’s palliative care unit and a member of Carry the Kettle First Nation, Juliette was escorted out of the southern Saskatchewan hospital by police months before her death after texting to her home care nurse, whom she considered a friend, that she would “slap the bitch,” referring to her pain specialist. Leading up to the text, she’d felt the doctor had belittled her during an assessment and, on several occasions, hadn’t managed her pain.
According to the health authority’s internal report on the incident, the doctor called police because she perceived herself at substantial risk due to the text.
Juliette was left without a discharge plan or pain management care and went a month without acute services, according to a document about the case an Aboriginal health consultant prepared for Joyce. The health authority’s report says Juliette received consultative services in the months that followed, but not palliative care.
Juliette and her family believed she was being stereotyped as an addict and as a member of a gang. The health authority’s internal report said Juliette was believed to “have close association with individuals with significant criminal affiliation,” stating this was part of the reason her doctor felt at risk enough to call police.
