Today I introduced to the legislature Christine Sorensen, President of the BC Nurses’ Union, Roger MacQuarrie, Communications and Campaigns Officer with the BC Nurses’ Union and Bonnie Christie, a Registered Nurse. They were in the gallery during Question Period and Member Statements.

Prior to me asking the Minister of Labour when he will ensure that the presumptive clause for work-related mental health disorders will be applied to nursing, I read out Bonnie’s incredibly moving story of mental injury acquired as a Registered Nurse.

Below I reproduce the text and video of that the story. My exchange with the Minister is available elsewhere.

Video of Statement

Text of my Statement

A phone rang in the intensive care unit at the BC Children’s Hospital. The call was from a rural BC hospital and they needed to transfer an 8 year old boy to the Children’s ICU right away.

Bonnie Christie was a senior Registered Nurse in the ICU that evening. When the boy arrived she started removing his bandages and blood began flowing like a waterfall. He had been ripped apart at the legs in a car accident while he delivered newspapers to his neighbours. He died shortly afterwards as he bled to death in the ICU.

In 21 years of children’s ICU nursing Bonnie has seen a lot of death and injury.

Bonnie remembers when two young girls were brought to the children’s ICU covered in third-degree burns. The girl’s mother died in the fire as her estranged husband tried to burn down their house and kill the family.

Bonnie remembers another young girl with burns so severe that they had to transfer her to a specialty hospital in the US. The girl’s mother set had her on fire while she was doing drugs.

She also remembers a young boy who was admitted with head wounds. When she took off his bandages part of his brain fell on the floor. His father tried to kill him with an axe.

Bonnie remembers other children who were sick and injured. And she remembers some who died horrible deaths. She can’t even count the number of horrible things she saw as a children’s ICU nurse.

After 21 years of critical care nursing Bonnie started having nightmares. She dreamt of pools of blood and people hanging on chain link fences with hooks through their scalps. At first she thought she only needed to get away from critical care nursing so she transferred to less acute roles. But after several transfers she kept having panic attacks. And anxiety. And more nightmares.

“I love nursing, but I’m still burdened by the events I went through,” says Bonnie. “I can never work in health care again and I don’t want any of my colleagues to go through what I did with WorkSafe BC. What we do is too important and too stressful for us to be re-injured in the process of trying to get help for ourselves.”

That was Bonnie Christie’s story.