Medical records show Edmonton Remand Center inmate’s pleas for medication, opioid treatment prior to death

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May 02, 2022 • 15 minutes ago • 3 minute read • Join the conversation

Lana Greene, right, with her son Timothy McConnell, who died in the Edmonton Remand Center on Jan. 11, 2021. Greene recently obtained documents showing her son's attempts to get medication and Suboxone treatment from jail staff before his death.
Lana Greene, right, with her son Timothy McConnell, who died in the Edmonton Remand Center on Jan. 11, 2021. Greene recently obtained documents showing her son’s attempts to get medication and Suboxone treatment from jail staff before his death. Photo by supplied

Warning: this story references suicide. If you need help, the AHS Mental Health Help Line can be reached at 1-877-303-2642. the Canada Suicide Prevention Service can be contacted at 1-833-456-4566.

Timothy James McConnell wrote a desperate plea to medical staff at the Edmonton Remand Center on New Year’s Day 2021, asking to begin treatment for his opioid addiction.

“I’m sorry to bug,” the 23-year-old scrawled on an Alberta Health Services form. “I know I’m on the waiting list, but I’ve been here four months and soon I’ll be back on the streets, (surrounded) by drugs and hopeless addicts.”

“Please let me start my Suboxone treatment,” McConnell concluded. “I won’t abuse the privilege.”

Ten days later, McConnell was found unresponsive in his cell. Officials told his mother he died by suicide.

After more than one year without answers, McConnell’s mother has obtained copies of his final health service request forms, which remand center inmates use to alert AHS staff to health issues.

Lana Greene is still waiting for official autopsy results, but says the documents are a first step in finding out what happened to her son — and preventing it from happening again.

“I’ve been left to just grieve and not know (what happened),” Greene said. “He was telling me he was asking (for help), but I had no proof, until I saw this last week. And then it was like ‘OK. That squashes any doubt that might have popped up.’”

McConnell was jailed on Sept. 4, 2020, after allegedly stealing airsoft pistols from a store in Grande Prairie.

Greene said her son struggled with addiction for years prior to his arrest, and that she was initially hopeful he might be steered into treatment through drug court.

Her hope faded after hearing about his struggles to access treatment and medical care inside.

After more than a year spent trying to obtain documents about her son’s time in remand — including his autopsy report, which has yet to be released — Greene received copies last week of seven medical request forms McConnell filed prior to his death.

In the first, dated Oct. 13, 2020, McConnell complains about pain in his arm from a previous surgery and asks for Tylenol and a topical painkiller. He said he previously self-medicated with marijuana and that THC pills might also be beneficial.

On the bottom half of the form, an AHS staffer replied that his request would be evaluated.

A few weeks later, on Nov. 3, 2020, McConnell sent another form. “I need to meet with a psychiatrist so I can get back on my medication,” he wrote. Under a section asking when the problem started, McConnell wrote “two months ago, still haven’t been seen after seven requests.”

  1. Health request forms Timothy McConnell, an Edmonton Remand Center inmate who died at the jail Jan. 11, 2021, sent to AHS in the lead-up to his death.

    Health request forms Timothy McConnell, an Edmonton Remand Center inmate who died at the jail Jan. 11, 2021, sent to AHS in the lead-up to his death. Photo by supplied

  2. Health request forms Timothy McConnell, an Edmonton Remand Center inmate who died at the jail Jan. 11, 2021, sent to AHS in the lead-up to his death.

    Health request forms Timothy McConnell, an Edmonton Remand Center inmate who died at the jail Jan. 11, 2021, sent to AHS in the lead-up to his death. Photo by Supplied

  3. Health request forms Timothy McConnell, an Edmonton Remand Center inmate who died at the jail Jan. 11, 2021, sent to AHS in the lead-up to his death.

    Health request forms Timothy McConnell, an Edmonton Remand Center inmate who died at the jail Jan. 11, 2021, sent to AHS in the lead-up to his death. Photo by Supplied

  4. Health request forms Timothy McConnell, an Edmonton Remand Center inmate who died at the jail Jan. 11, 2021, sent to AHS in the lead-up to his death.

    Health request forms Timothy McConnell, an Edmonton Remand Center inmate who died at the jail Jan. 11, 2021, sent to AHS in the lead-up to his death. Photo by Supplied

  5. Health request forms Timothy McConnell, an Edmonton Remand Center inmate who died at the jail Jan. 11, 2021, sent to AHS in the lead-up to his death.

    Health request forms Timothy McConnell, an Edmonton Remand Center inmate who died at the jail Jan. 11, 2021, sent to AHS in the lead-up to his death. Photo by Supplied

  6. Health request forms Timothy McConnell, an Edmonton Remand Center inmate who died at the jail Jan. 11, 2021, sent to AHS in the lead-up to his death.

    Health request forms Timothy McConnell, an Edmonton Remand Center inmate who died at the jail Jan. 11, 2021, sent to AHS in the lead-up to his death. Photo by Supplied

  7. Health request forms Timothy McConnell, an Edmonton Remand Center inmate who died at the jail Jan. 11, 2021, sent to AHS in the lead-up to his death.

    Health request forms Timothy McConnell, an Edmonton Remand Center inmate who died at the jail Jan. 11, 2021, sent to AHS in the lead-up to his death. Photo by Supplied

  8. Health request forms Timothy McConnell, an Edmonton Remand Center inmate who died at the jail Jan. 11, 2021, sent to AHS in the lead-up to his death.

    Health request forms Timothy McConnell, an Edmonton Remand Center inmate who died at the jail Jan. 11, 2021, sent to AHS in the lead-up to his death. Photo by Supplied

An AHS staffer replied saying his file showed no mental health medications had been prescribed at the remand center or in the community in the past 12 months (McConnell later told staff he had been on the antipsychotic Seroquel, as well as the ADHD drugs Ritalin and Vyvanse ). “Please follow up with your family doctor upon release,” the AHS employee wrote.

McConnell was denied bail on Nov. 18, 2020, according to court records.

Eleven days later, McConnell told staff he was having “a lot of trouble refraining using drugs in here.”

“I’m scared I’m gonna lose my life when I get outside, back around even more pressure to use,” he wrote. “I’ve overdosed 16 times and I really want to leave this life behind.”

“I was on Suboxone on the outside, please start me on it again,” he said, adding previous treatment had him “functioning in society, refraining from drugs for the first time in too long.”

The AHS staffer responded by asking McConnell to refer to some additional materials. Then, on Jan. 5, 2021, six days before he died, McConnell was told he had been added to the waitlist for opioid dependency treatment. The letter did not say how long McConnell should expect to wait.

Greene believes the forms show a lack of urgency on the part of jail staff in addressing her son’s concerns.

As a mother of someone struggling with addiction, she understands some likely saw his requests as “drug-seeking” behaviour.

Nevertheless, she said the forms show that her son wanted to live.

“Whatever was going on in there was terrible,” she said. “It was hell on earth, because TJ didn’t want to die. I really fought hard to not want to die.”

AHS and the ministry of justice did not respond to emails seeking comment Sunday.

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