Inquest into UVic student overdose hears heart-wrenching testimony from mother

Karin Larsen · CBC News

· Posted: Apr 28, 2025 7:35 PM EDT | Last Updated: 4 minutes ago

The parent of Sidney McIntyre-Starko, the 18-year-old who died of a fentanyl overdose successful a University of Victoria dorm country past year, gave heart-wrenching and pointed grounds connected time 1 of the coroner's inquest into her daughter's death.

Dr. Caroline McIntyre said the assemblage "lied" and enactment retired a "completely false" timeline astir the nighttime her girl died successful January 2024.

McIntyre, an exigency country physician, said contempt claiming otherwise, the assemblage ne'er contacted Royal Jubilee Hospital to place Sidney aft she was taken determination by ambulance. 

Instead, her girl was listed arsenic an unidentified idiosyncratic during the clip exigency country unit were trying to prevention her life.

"I didn't marque it there," said McIntyre. "She was unidentified, alone, and connected a ventilator."

McIntyre said she gave timestamped grounds to the manager of field information successful bid to close the grounds of effect enactment retired by the university.

"This inquest is mostly being held due to the fact that my girl was near for 15 minutes to dice portion field information sat determination with Narcan," she said. 

McIntyre's grounds was interrupted a fig of times by presiding coroner Larry Marzinzik, who astatine 1 constituent asked her and her ineligible counsel to debar speculation.

An autarkic study released earlier this period recovered that McIntyre-Starko "likely would not person died" if the university's effect had been better.

It said responding information officers failed to place the overdose and took excessively agelong to administer nasal naloxone to reverse the toxic drug. 

According to the report, McIntyre-Starko had ne'er tried unregulated thoroughfare drugs earlier the nighttime she and 2 chap first-year students snorted a pulverization containing a premix of cocaine and fentanyl. 

The different 2 students besides overdosed alongside McIntyre-Starko but were revived. Both testified connected time 1 of the inquest. Their names are protected by a work ban.

One of the students identified a photograph of a vial of grey powdery substance shown arsenic an grounds arsenic the cause they took.

She said she and Sidney recovered the vial astatine the bottommost of a container of coolers they had been fixed and decided to instrumentality the drugs unneurotic the pursuing day. She said she tried to Google what the cause was, and it came up heroin oregon opioids.

"There wasn't overmuch discussion. It was like, yeah, let's bash it,"  she said. "We were like, it can't beryllium thing bad. That was the thought process."

McIntyre told the inquest that her occupation arsenic an exigency country doc meant that Sidney was "well informed" astir the toxic cause crisis.

She said successful retrospect, she wishes she had talked to her girl much straight astir cause safeguarding and Narcan. 

"It's my beingness sentence, right? Like, what other could I person done for my child?" 

The inquest was called past twelvemonth aft quality of McIntrye-Starko's decease sparked a nationalist outcry. 

McIntyre told coroner's court that her girl was 1 of implicit 2,200 radical who died from toxic drugs past twelvemonth successful B.C.

"Twenty teens died [of toxic drugs] past year, 24 the twelvemonth before, 26 the twelvemonth earlier that. We haven't done inquests for them and we astir apt should," she said. 

In effect to a juror's question, McIntyre explained that a fentanyl overdose volition halt a idiosyncratic from breathing. She said in the lack of Narcan, giving an overdose unfortunate artificial respiration — also known arsenic mouth-to-mouth oregon CPR thorax compressions — will support idiosyncratic live by forcing oxygen into their lungs.  

She said a idiosyncratic who's not breathing volition endure encephalon harm aft astir 4 minutes, with fatal bosom harm occurring soon after.

The inquest volition perceive grounds from 36 witnesses implicit 10 days.

Coroners' inquests bash not delegate blasted but are nationalist inquiries that purpose to find the circumstances surrounding a death.

At the decision of testimony, the five-person coroner's assemblage volition marque non-binding recommendations to forestall akin deaths successful the future.