Coroner to investigate UVic student’s death as parents call for harm reduction, naloxone in dorms

A BC Coroners Service inquest will be held after the death of an 18-year-old University of Victoria student who died from unregulated toxic drugs in her student dorm in January, the provincial government says.

Vancouver-born-and-raised Cailin Sidney McIntyire-Starko, known to her friends and family as Sidney, died after she and another UVic student collapsed in their dorm.

In an open letter released Wednesday to Premier David Eby, Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry, Health Minister Adrian Dix, and MLA Lisa Beare, her parents say their daughter would still be alive if 911 call takers, campus security, and the university had acted with the urgency needed to save her.

Sidney’s mother Caroline McIntyre, an emergency physician, explains the teenager died from a “witnessed fentanyl overdose.”

“As you are aware, no young healthy person should die from a witnessed collapse from an opioid poisoning. It is easily treatable. Naloxone, when administered quickly, reverses the effect of an opioid overdose. Simple CPR will keep the person alive while waiting for the naloxone to work or waiting for help to arrive,” she said.

“Our daughter’s death was preventable. Witnesses heard Sidney and another student collapse and did exactly what they were told to do for emergencies at the University of Victoria. They called campus security immediately. Campus security never contacted 911. The only person on campus to contact 911 was an impaired student who had difficulty following simple instructions.

“Campus security showed up in about 3 1/2 minutes, with enough time to save our daughter. Sidney and another student were unconscious and blue when campus security arrived. The security officers were trained in CPR and carried nasal naloxone. They denied her the lifesaving care she needed until it was too late. They administered naloxone 9 minutes after they arrived and started CPR almost 12 minutes after arrival.

“Sidney was an organ donor five days later.”

Caroline says Sidney was in “full cardiac arrest” by the time the fire department arrived at her daughter’s side — 15 minutes after dispatch.

“Opioid toxicity is the leading cause of death in the 10-29 age group in BC. This province has the most toxic drug supply in the country. As Bonnie Henry points out in ‘Stopping the Harm’, overdose deaths are affecting people who use drugs for the first time and people who only use drugs occasionally,” Caroline added.

“In BC, teens and young adults can legally possess and carry enough fentanyl to kill an auditorium of opioid-naive students. Both the increasingly toxic drug supply, as well as the decision to decriminalize possession, should have been independent triggers for the government of BC to put measures in place to protect our youth.

“As you are aware, teens and young adults are at high risk of sometimes making poor choices and taking risks. This is developmentally normal. With the current drug supply, it puts them at high risk of a toxic drug death. Tragically, young people today who are offered a pill or a powder or something to smoke, may inadvertently consume fentanyl.”

Caroline and Sidney’s father Kenton Starko are now urging the province to protect young students, who may be first-time, unintentional drug users, who are at “high risk of death” if accidentally exposed to fentanyl.

In their open letter, Caroline and Kenton provide seven recommendations to the government, including making CPR and naloxone training mandatory in high school curriculum.

“CPR is mandatory in the high school curriculums in Ontario, Quebec and Manitoba. Why is BC so far behind? This province has refused to make CPR a mandatory part of the high school curriculum,” they say.

“This is unconscionable. None of the students who witnessed my daughter’s death were from a school or school district that chose to implement CPR training. Why should a school district get to choose who gets to learn how to stay safe and save a life?”

They’re also calling for nasal naloxone to be free, and widely available across the province, explaining that the currently available injectable naloxone is a “prohibitive approach.”

More specifically, however, Sidney’s parents are calling on the province to mandate naloxone kits in all schools and campuses in B.C.

“Sidney would be alive if nasal naloxone had been available in the dorm where our daughter died and if the students had been educated on how to recognize and treat an overdose. The students who responded were competent and motivated to help, but they were not given the tools they needed to help save her life. Their only option was to call for help,” they explained.

“As you know, time is crucial in treating opioid toxicity. Why risk having to wait for campus security or paramedics when a competent student may be nearby and willing to help? In our daughter’s circumstance, it was deadly for campus security to be the only people with naloxone.”

Coronial inquest to be held to ‘get answers’ for Sidney’s family: Eby

The family’s final ask is that the province holds a coronial inquest into Sidney’s death — something which Premier Eby confirmed would occur Thursday.

In Question Period at the Legislature Thursday, Eby said the coroners service will investigate exactly what went wrong, so another family doesn’t have to go through the same thing.

“Sidney’s death is horrible. And it is death that is preceded by thousands of other deaths and affected families and friends. This toxic drug crisis is a public health crisis. It is a tragedy,” he said.

Eby explained he has been in “brief” contact with Sidney’s mother Caroline, in which he has assured her that the coroner will get the answers needed for Sidney’s family.

“The timeline of events is profoundly disturbing, reconstructed by Sidney’s family. And they have the 911 call, which they have listened to, which I can’t even imagine what that would be like as a parent,” Eby said.

The premier shared that part of the tragedy of this case is that it took nearly 13 minutes for security to deploy naloxone, even though they had the life-saving drug with them.

“The part of the tragedy of Sidney’s death, as I understand it, is that there were security from UVic that were in the room as she died, that had naloxone, that had naloxone training, and did not deploy that naloxone immediately,” he said.

“There are serious questions that need to be answered about this horrific death, which is why the Solicitor General has directed a coroner’s inquest.

“We are reaching out to university presidents right across the province to make sure that they are doing all they can on their campuses to have naloxone available [in] every post-secondary institution.

Sidney was in her first year at university, studying science. A website to honour her remembers her as a talented dancer and lover of Greek mythology.