TORONTO - Questions about whether the death of an 18-year-old girl could have been prevented if two southern Ontario ERs hadn't been closed have been haunting Reilly Anzovino's family for months.
They hope an Ontario coroner's inquest, called Tuesday, will finally answer if the additional time it took for the ambulance to bring Anzovino to a hospital further afield meant the difference between life and death.
The question needs to be answered not only so the family can put it to rest, but also for the community, which has been rallying against the two ER closures, said Anzovino's grandmother, Patricia Anzovino.
"We don't ever want it to happen to another family," she said from her home in Fort Erie, Ont.
"We don't have another family to have to go through... wondering, might she have been saved?"
Injured in a car crash, Anzovino died Dec. 27 just as the ambulance carrying her reached the hospital in the southern Ontario town of Welland, about 20 kilometres from the accident scene.
Her grieving family and others believe her life may have been saved if she had received help in Fort Erie, some five kilometres closer. The emergency room in that city was closed last year as part of a controversial hospital restructuring plan.
Another emergency room in nearby Port Colborne had also been shuttered.
"If both of those hospitals, if their ER was still open, could Reilly have been saved?" Anzovino said.
"We're hoping that the inquest will answer all of these questions."
Dr. Andrew McCallum, Ontario's chief coroner, announced the inquest Tuesday, though details such as date, location, focus and scope had not yet been determined.
To have an inquest called a little more than two months after a death is very fast, said Kim Craitor, the Niagara Falls member of provincial parliament who had also been pushing for an inquest.
"The family of course needed to know and have some closure whether or not the closing of the (emergency) in Fort Erie played a significant role in the death of Reilly," he said.
"Secondly, the community needs to know... There's a feeling of despair."
The government also needs to know whether their decision to close the ERs had an impact on the death of the 18-year-old fine arts student at Algonquin College in Ottawa, said Craitor, himself a member of the governing Liberal party.
"I'm ecstatic that the coroner has called this inquest," Craitor said.
Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak, who grew up with Anzovino's father Tim, said he remains concerned about the reduction of services in small-town and northern hospitals.
"Nothing can bring Reilly back to her family, but at least they can get some answers to the questions that no doubt they think about every night," he said in an interview.
"And also give some answers to the Fort Erie, Niagara community about whether the closure of Douglas Memorial Hospital's emergency room has an unfortunate role in this tragedy."
Anzovino's family had been calling for an inquest, saying that even though it wouldn't bring their beloved daughter back they couldn't find any peace without answers to their questions.
The family, including Anzovino's parents and her 17-year-old brother, have been "deeply mourning" their tragic loss, Patricia Anzovino said.
NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said she is pleased the coroner has announced an inquest, which her party had also been urging.
"There's no doubt that this horrific situation demanded an inquest and we're glad that he's going forward with it," she said.
Horwath added she hopes the scope is broad enough to take into consideration changes in the health-care system that may have made an impact.
Premier Dalton McGuinty has said that he still supports the decision to close the ERs, which he said was done under the advice of the Local Health Integration Network.
His government, which has warned of smaller funding increases to hospitals amid an unprecedented $25-billion deficit this year, set up 14 LHINs across the province four years ago to make local health-care decisions and dispense government cash.
