The doctor who treated an Alberta Hospital patient who went missing and was found frozen to death a week later, took the stand at his former patient's fatality inquiry Thursday.
Lorraine Adolph, who suffered from schizophrenia, went missing from the geriatric unit of the Alberta Hospital on Dec. 4, 2008 after she went outside to go have a cigarette. An officer conducting a follow-up search found her frozen body on the hospital grounds a week later. Her body was found just 800 metres from where she was last seen.
Dr. Robert Granger says he granted Adolph ground privileges so she could go outside for unsupervised cigarette breaks. He made the decision just one day before she went missing.
Adolph had just been admitted to the hospital two days before she went missing. The doctor testified he was aware she fled a hospital in Stony Plain just days earlier and knew she was suffering from hallucinations and delusions of smelling dead people and told others she believed the world was going to end, but he didn't feel there was any risk of her running away.
The court also heard a voicemail the doctor left for the woman's family after she went missing.
"Unfortunately I learned my lesson now, I sent her out on ground privileges so she could have a cigarette and she was supposed to check back in 15 minutes time and it's been almost an hour," Granger said in the recording.
Adolph's family says the doctor should have known better as the woman had fled from a hospital in Stony Plain just five days before being admitted to Alberta Hospital.
"He knew the records of my mom and she escaped from Stony Plain. In my mind, she should have never been let out unsupervised," said Barry Adolph.
Her family says she had also been refusing to take her medication.
"She says,' I am messing it up', she knew she was doing wrong, but she didn't know what to do," said Adolph's sister, Esther Gehlert.
The doctor says a supervised smoke break wasn't possible because of staffing levels.
On Wednesday, the court heard from Const. Ryan Busby, who testified police had canvassed nearby businesses after hospital staff told him "they were confident that they searched the building." He says they assured him they had done the checks after the woman was reported missing.
Security guards say an immediate search of the grounds was done in a vehicle, but with two other patients missing that day, a foot search was not conducted until 9:15 -- nine hours after Adolph went missing.
And while one security guard did go near the building where the woman's body was found, no one searched around it. Guards said the snow was too deep at that time.
The inquiry wraps up Friday and will include testimony from Adolph's family.
With files from Sonia Sunger
