With criminal proceedings complete against a woman who posed as a nurse in a B.C. hospital for more than a year, her victims can now turn their attention to a civil suit as they seek justice.
Last week, Brigitte Cleroux was sentenced to seven years in prison for working as a nurse at B.C. Women’s Hospital under stolen credentials.
It’s estimated she interacted with more than 1,100 patients during her time at the hospital.
Those victims have launched a class action lawsuit naming the Provincial Health Services Authority, which operates the hospital, alleging breach of privacy and vicarious liability.
One of Cleroux’s victims, who can’t be identified because of a publication ban, attended her sentencing hearing last week in search of closure.
She told Global News that while she is happy the criminal chapter of the case is now over, she still carries trauma about what happened to her — and the health authority’s response to it.
“I still don’t understand how BC Women’s allowed her to be there for that long and have so many complaints against her, and still allowed her not only to practice on people in a gynecology ward,” she said.
“It kind of upsets me more wondering why this took this long, how she was able to do this for this long, and clearly there is a crack in the system for this to happen this long.”
The PHSA refuses to comment on the case.
In a statement, it said, “While we understand the sentencing has occurred, there remain outstanding legal matters with respect to this situation.”
In prior legal filings in the civil suit, the health authority denied it had tried to evade any responsibility in the incident.
But it argued it should not be liable for “Cleroux’s fraud,” which it said was “abhorrent, [and] unauthorized.”
“Cleroux deliberately defrauded and deceived PHSA in order to gain employment,” the PHSA said in a June 2022 filing, adding her claim that her nursing registration number wasn’t immediately available because she had moved from Ontario wasn’t unusual, and that it had verified a nurse with the name Cleroux was operating under was licenced in B.C.
The victim Global News spoke with said when she followed up with the health authority after being informed she had been treated by Cleroux, the person she spoke with was “very nonchalant, very cold.”
“There’s no fault, nothing happened, none of us died so everything is OK. It was shocking,” she said.
“Clearly there is a break in the system and I hope they are also held accountable for what they did to all of us, because it is because of them she was able to work there, not only for one day but for over a year.”
In the meantime, the victim said she continues to struggle with post-traumatic stress syndrome and has been left with ongoing distrust of the medical system.
“Going to medical appointments is terrifying,” she said.
“I have full-blown panic attacks, anxiety, I have to carry around medication with me in case these come up. It’s definitely changed my life forever.”
In partially certifying the class action suit in July 2023, a B.C. Supreme Court judge also ruled that because Cleroux interacted with so many patients in different capacities, resulting in widely different experiences, additional allegations of negligence and battery should be pursued as individual legal actions rather than as a class.
It remains unclear when the civil suit will go to trial.