Timeline

We spent the winter in Ontario, and drove back to PEI to spend the summer at our home there.

A few days after we arrived, I started to feel unwell and had a high temperature, that did not want to go down.

I had difficulty breathing, so we called an ambulance. The paramedic said, that it was probably just a panic attack, but to be safe, they left an oxygen monitor with me and asked me to check my blood oxygen level frequently. This monitor reported directly to them so they could see the readings.

An ambulance was dispatched because my oximeter reading showed that my blood oxygen level dropped dangerously low. They took me to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH)

I was admitted to the hospital and transferred to Unit 3

The day after I was admitted to Unit 3 I was transferred to the ICU and put on oxygen, then on high pressure air to help me breathe.

I was transferred back to Unit 3

I was released from the hospital.

Barry started receiving calls from people trying to confirm if it is me who is hospitalized. Rumors were started that the person mentioned in the blog was me.

I was the fist and only patient in the hospital with covid at the time, and the only one who was transferred to the ICU, so identifying me was not difficult.

Contact by facebook

Lynn Drake confirmed that the communication office has reached out to Kevin J Arsenault and asked him to remove the post last week. She also spoke to the privacy manager at the hospital but she was not sure if the post has been removed yet or not.

She gave us the director of privacy of Health PEI’s name: Jeanne MacDougall.

She also mentioned that they will be looking into who accessed my charts as part of their investigation.

We asked Health PEI and QEH to find who is responsible and hold them accountable.

Jeanne MacDougall returned our call and told us that the privacy commissioner was advised and working on the investigation and working on my chart report to see who accessed my file and how long they were in it. She offered to send the report to us when ready.

She also advised us that since the Facebook post is still online and Kevin J Arsenault has been ignoring their communication request, that we should contact the police to try to have him remove it.

Asked facebook to remove the post, but they refused as it did not violate their policies.

Jeanne MacDougall reached out to me by email letting me know that the report is completed and asked to open a secure communication portal to send it over.

Went to the Police to file a report and request to have the post removed.

Spoke with Cpl. Bill Almon who took our statements and opened a file. (File # 588444-21)

He told us that they will try to locate Kevin J Arsenault by either phone or giving him a visit. He also said that this case may be escalated and given to a detective on Monday.

Received the audit report from the hospital listing all who accessed my electronic chart at the hospital.

Spoke with Cpl. Bill Almon who told us that he reached out the Kevin J Arsenault, but he was not cooperating and he is not expecting him to remove the post.

Followed up with Jeanne MacDougall by phone about the progress on my file. The hospital contacted Facebook to have the post removed, but they do not see this as a breach of their privacy agreement, so did not remove the post.

They sent a more detailed audit report to the managers of each unit (ER, Unit 3 and ICU) to find out if there is anyone on their list who shouldn’t be there.

They confirmed that all access was appropriate, but then she told us that there was one person on the list who accessed my file April 16 in the evening even though I was not her patient. They are doing more investigation on this person. (Breach #2)

They are also doing a person of interest audit on the other hospitalized patient (under 10 years old) at the same time.

I told her about our efforts to narrow the list down, and different criteria how we tried to eliminate people from the list as the person we are looking for is not necessarily someone who shouldn’t be there. The original post by Kevin J Arsenault indicated that the source was a nurse who directly cared for me, meaning he/she should be on the list.

Followed up with Jeanne MacDougall by phone: The person identified accessing my file when it was not part of her job was referred to HR for disciplinary action. She will follow up with HR to see if they can release her name. They asked her if she knew about the Facebook post, but she denied it.

She confirmed that the investigation is almost complete, but they do not expect anyone named as the result of the investigation.

We asked if the hospital considered getting the information from Kevin J. Arsenault, but they do not see it as a feasible option.

We also asked if they would consider legal action against Kevin J Arsenault, she will have to confirm with the CEO and legal department.

We have voiced our frustration and anger on how this investigation is progressing.

We told her that we still haven’t received anything from the Privacy Commissioner’s office. She was surprised by that and she will follow up with them, and ask if they are willing or able to start legal action against Kevin J Arsenault.

Since it is most likely that there will be no one named at the end of the investigation she asked what else are we expecting, what else can they do to help resolve this issue. We said that we will have to discuss and get back to her next week.

Received the updated audit report that highlighted the nurse’s name who accessed my file when she was not working on my case.

We decided to list our home on PEI as it became very uncomfortable to stay there after this incident.

Unfortunately HIV still has a stigma attached to it on PEI, and the gossip made it impossible to have a quiet and private life on PEI.

We interviewed a few agents to see what our house was worth and to see who would be best representing us with the sale.

Received the appraisal price from multiple agents. 

Jeanne MacDougall has followed up by email on our take of the investigation report. We expressed how disappointed we were with it.

Our home listing went online. Since I am well versed in the field of web design, I developed a website for our home to help with the sale.

Property website: https://64rte13.com

We had to visit the emergency room on September 2nd with a reaction to my medication for an ear infection. It was a very long wait and we observed some privacy beaches.

1. The intake charts were left outside in a folder by the nurse’s station unattended. To our astonishment we witnessed another patient take them all out and read through them! Nobody questioned her. Barry went to speak to one of the nurses and she did take them inside, but within an hour or so they were right back out.
2. Intake nurses/staff did not consistently close the doors while with patients allowing people in the waiting room to hear everything.
3. When I did finally see the doctor I was in the room where they take EKGs which is part of the nurse’s station. The only separation is just a curtain which allows whoever is in there to hear all conversations between the patients and the nurses.

I sent an email to Jeanne MacDougall about the privacy concerns we witnessed while waiting in the ER. We also included some simple solutions to address the problems.

Heard back from Jeanne MacDougall who let us know she forwarded our email to the ER department.

Reduced the price of the property as I needed a quicker sale to put things and PEI behind us.

Received an offer on the home and accepted it.

Since the last condition on the offer was met, we decided to pack up and leave early. Hired people to look after the house until the closing date, to ensure everything was in order.

The sale on the home on PEI is closed.

Since neither the QEH investigation nor the Privacy commissioner’s office held anyone accountable we decided to retain legal council.

We called Cox and Palmer who we dealt with on multiple occasion, for both personal and business matter while on PEI. They said it would be a conflict of interest.

We decided to go off island for our representation and hired Spark Law in Toronto.

To find out what information exactly was stolen, I reached out to Health PEI to request for more information.

The details of the information stolen was received. As the original letter noted, the data included my full name, postal code, date of birth, health card number, arrival and dicharge time, family doctor information, the attending doctor’s name, the reason for my visit, the triage level, my diagnosis, and other tracking and internal ID numbers.

I was suprised to read that my reaction to the ear infection medication (racing heart and skipping beat) was simply diagnosed as “Fatigue”.