Finlay van der Werken’s life is now a collection of memories closely guarded by his parents. The 16-year-old is remembered as a loving son, a devoted older brother and a loyal friend.
“I still hear his laughter,” his father, GJ van der Werken, said. “Finlay was a typical oldest son. (He was) very responsible, looking after his twin brothers, making friends wherever he went.
“He had the tendency to gravitate towards kids that didn’t seem to have any other friends or that seemed to be struggling with school or contact, so he would just embrace them and make them feel welcome.“
In early February of 2024, a migraine kept Finlay home from school. His mother, Hazel, said this would sometimes happen if Finlay was getting sick. But his condition got worse, and Hazel decided to take him to Oakville Trafalgar Memorial Hospital.
“He was crying out in pain a lot, and just kind of looking at me, like get me there somewhere,” Hazel said. “You could tell he didn’t know what was going on, but he knew it was not normal, so I drove as fast as I could.
“When I got to the hospital. I just abandoned the car at the doors of ER and we ran in. There was just so many people. The corridors were lined with people. We sat down and Finlay just kept crying out. He never cries out in pain. He would never do that if it wasn’t really an emergency.“
Photos provided by Hazel van der Werken.
Hazel says he would not see a doctor for hours, despite telling the nurses Finlay was not doing well.
“When I went up at three in the morning, they said, well, we only have one doctor, but there’s another one coming in at four. I don’t know where that one doctor was,” Hazel recalled.
In reviewing the hospital records, Martin and Hillier lawyer, Meghan Walker, said, “Finlay was triaged at almost exactly 10:00. He wasn’t actually seen by a physician until 6:22 in the morning.”
According to the statement of claim about what happened, when he was seen the following morning, the doctor said Finlay “was experiencing sepsis/pneumonia with hypoxia and he was at high risk for acute deterioration.”
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His oxygens levels, which the lawyer said hospital records show had been dropping throughout the night, were also a concern.
“I remember just saying to Finlay, like Finlay we’ve got to get, you know, we’re looking at this screen that’s got his oxygen saturation and I’m like, we have to get it up,” Hazel said.
“His breathing was so shallow by this point, and he said, ‘I can’t do deep. It hurts too much,’ and I said, you’ve got to try, you got to try.”
Finlay eventually needed to be intubated. The decision was made to transfer him to SickKids hospital in Toronto. But before that could happen, he went into cardiac arrest. The statement of claim said “the contributing cause of arrest was listed as septic shock, pneumonia.”
Photos provided by Hazel van der Werken.
Finlay arrived at SickKids and was taken to the ICU. He was in hypotensive shock and placed on ECMO, a life-support system that helps take over a patient’s heart and lung function.
But staff told Hazel and GJ that Finlay’s organ function was getting worse, and to continue on ECMO was considered “futile.”
“We had to make the decision… take Findlay off life support,” Hazel said through tears. GJ added, “Or risk that the situation would escalate even more and he would wake up and die in a lot of pain.”
After Finlay died, Hazel and GJ say they met with hospital staff to review what happened. “They didn’t say they were wrong,” Hazel said. “But they acknowledged that if Finlay had been seen earlier, it could have been a different outcome.“
Global News reached out for comment on this story.
In a written statement, Halton Healthcare officials said, “We are deeply committed to delivering high-quality, compassionate care to the communities we serve across all three of our hospitals: Milton District Hospital, Oakville Trafalgar Memorial Hospital, and Georgetown Hospital, as well as our community sites.
“Like many hospitals, we are seeing more patients presenting with increasingly complex health conditions and co-morbidities, often requiring longer stays and more intensive care. This places significant demand on our emergency departments, patient flow, bed availability and the patient experience.”
Photos provided by Hazel van der Werken.
The family has since launched a lawsuit alleging, in part, that the health care team failed to monitor Finlay, have appropriate protocols in place for his treatment, or inform the family of the true nature of his condition.
Meghan Walker is the lead counsel on the matter.
“The experts are quite clear and unequivocal that this was a treatable condition and had he been treated promptly, there is no doubt in my mind that he would still be here today, which I think is the hardest thing for my clients to deal with,” Walker said.
“He was triaged as the second-highest level in triage. The guidelines say that 95 per cent of the time, they should be seen within 15 minutes.”
The hospital says they are making changes to track data more closely, refining their on-call coverage criteria protocols and other tools and working groups to improve patient flow and communication.
In an update provided July 18, they noted that a “Length of Stay Committee” was launched in fall of 2024 and a “Command Centre” was opened on July 1, 2025, with the goal of helping improve flow in their emergency departments. Furthermore, Dr. Ian Preyra has been onboarded as the new Vice President of Medical Affairs and Academics, and Dr. Prashant Phalpher is the new Chief of Emergency and Program Medical Director.
But the family wants more awareness so something like this never happens again.
“We feel that we have been let down and we cannot trust the medical system as it is right now,” GJ said. As a result, the van der Werken family is launching an awareness campaign called “Finlay’s Voice.”
“We felt we needed to stand up in place of Finlay and be his voice in the sense of what is it we can do,” Hazel said. “We’ve been through this tragedy and we’re still living that every day. We can choose to say nothing, we can choose to be silent… but if you don’t tell these stories, nobody knows.
“If you don’t tell the stories, then how is change brought about?”
The family hopes their tragedy can spark renewed efforts to improve deficiencies in the health care system, and is calling on MPPs, the Ministry of Health and local stakeholders to get involved.
Halton Healthcare declined an on-camera interview and by email told Global News they do not comment on individual patient cases or litigation matters.
As of Friday, July 25, Walker said a statement of defence had not been filed.