Brampton Civic Hospital Data Breach (2017)

A senior citizen who spent two months in intensive care at Brampton Civic Hospital (BCH) last year has filed a $1 million breach of privacy lawsuit against the William Osler Health System and a nurse. Valerie Darragh, 77, is one of possibly hundreds of former patients who were notified the week of April 24 that their hospital identification numbers were allegedly accessed by “an employee” for “non-hospital-related” use. Nurse Catharina Demme was charged by Peel police May 4 with using those patient numbers to steal Percocet. “When patients are in a hospital’s care, they shouldn’t have to worry about how their personal information is being treated,” said Darragh’s lawyer, Mike Smitiuch of Smitiuch Injury Law PC. Darragh’s medical records indicated she had been prescribed Percocet. She never got the painkiller, but she needed it, she said.