Chiropractor may not have assessed woman who died of stroke properly, lawsuit alleges

Published: 2011-03-22 14:31:31
Author: Dianne Wood Record staff

  A chiropractor who treated a Guelph woman who died of a stroke may not have properly assessed or diagnosed the woman, a lawyer representing the woman’s surviving husband said in a Kitchener courtroom Monday.

Joe Labonte and his three sons are suing chiropractor Dr. Tracy Drynan of St. Catharines.

They allege Drynan’s treatment of Dora Labonte in June, 2002, led to her fatal stroke in hospital several weeks later. The mother of three was 40.

A civil trial is to start Tuesday morning in Superior Court.

Several pretrial motions were addressed Monday. Amani Oakley, the lawyer for Joe Labonte, said standard of care will be an issue at the trial.

Oakley will question whether Drynan reached an appropriate diagnosis before she began treatment, and whether she should have been treating Dora Labonte at all.

Drynan treated her for nine years.

“The treatment generally, through nine years was useless and potentially harmful treatment,’’ Amani said to Justice Donald Gordon. It was “wholly futile care.’’

She also suggested the chiropractor was operating outside the chiropractic scope of practice.

Dora Labonte first went to see the chiropractor for help with food sensitivities and numbness in her right arm, Oakley said. She had a history of headaches and migraines.

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