In his first public comments about the January overdose death of an 18-year-old student, University of Victoria president Kevin Hall admitted Thursday there were mistakes by trained staff who responded to the medical emergency.
“We do want to absolutely learn from this process so that we go into September as a much better institution. And, you know, were there mistakes made? Absolutely,” Hall said during an online meeting of the UVic Senate, which oversees the academic governance of the university.
Sidney McIntyre-Starko died of a drug overdose in a UVic dorm on Jan. 23. Witnesses called for help right away.
But according to a timeline based on a recording of the 911 call, the first-year student did not receive the overdose-reversing drug naloxone for 13 minutes or CPR for 15 minutes.
UVic has said that interventions were given five minutes earlier than the call suggests.
At Thursday’s meeting, student senator Hannah Brown asked why UVic had given “false” information to the media about the timing of the first aid provided by security.
Hall denied the university was disputing the newspaper’s version of events, but said he didn’t have access to the same information, and anticipates the timeline will be determined by the coroner’s inquest.
Hall said UVic’s provost is conducting an internal review into McIntyre-Starko’s death, which will look into some of the concerns raised by Brown, such as why easy-to-use nasal naloxone is not readily available on campus, as it is at other schools.
Hall said the security officers “tried to do their best,” and UVic’s internal review will look at what improvements need to be made.
“What is the extra training that’s needed to do? How do we show up better next time?” he asked. “We will invest as much as we need to invest to make sure we’re a better and safer institution for all of our students.”
Hall added that a UVic vice-president is taking part in a post-secondary overdose-response steering committee set up by the province in response to the case.
Brown, a graduate student, said she posed her questions based on a letter McIntyre-Starko’s parents sent to Hall, the senate and the board of governors, which asked why UVic made “false, egregious and misleading statements” to the media.
Hall’s responses were a disappointment to McIntyre-Starko’s parents, who are frustrated that UVic continues to maintain that its security officers — whom first-year students are routinely told to call if there is an emergency — did not violate basic first aid protocols by waiting so long to start CPR.
“We are so grateful that Hannah spoke up at the meeting. We agree with her comments — Sidney’s preventable death from an overdose on campus points to systemic issues at the university,” said her mother, Dr. Caroline McIntyre, a Vancouver emergency physician.
