Overview

• Finlay van der Werken, 16, waited eight hours and 22 minutes at Oakville Trafalgar Memorial Hospital before assessment, a wait his family says far exceeded the 15-minute target for his triage level.
• When he was seen, he was diagnosed with hypoxia and pneumonia from sepsis, was intubated, transferred to Toronto’s SickKids, and later died in hospital.
• The family has filed a lawsuit against Halton Healthcare Services alleging an inadequate system and insufficient emergency department monitoring.
• This week they requested a coroner’s inquest and launched a public petition for “Finlay’s Law,” proposing maximum pediatric ER wait times, safe staffing ratios, independent reviews of pediatric ER deaths, and increased pediatric emergency funding.
• Halton Healthcare offered condolences and cited surging patient complexity and capacity pressures, while Ontario’s Health Ministry called the case “deeply tragic and unacceptable” and reaffirmed hospitals’ obligations to review critical incidents and disclose findings to families.