N.S. news: Lawsuit launched by family of Indigenous woman claims negligence in her death [Video]

HALIFAX –

The mother of an Indigenous woman who died in hospital with fungal meningitis says her daughter’s race may have played a role in the allegedly negligent medical treatment she received.

In response to the death of Destiny Rennie, her mother filed a lawsuit against the Nova Scotia health authority and four doctors responsible for treating the 22-year-old Mi’kmaq woman.

A notice of action filed July 25 in the Nova Scotia Supreme Court says Rennie, who experienced “brain death” on Aug. 3, 2023, and was pronounced dead three days later with meningitis, was mistreated by doctors who thought she was an illicit drug user. Her family alleges that hospital staff and doctors were “generally negligent” in their supervision and monitoring of Rennie’s symptoms and slow to act as her health deteriorated over several days.

“It’s gut-wrenching to think that if she had blond hair and blue eyes, would she have been …