April 11th 2023
“Sakihitowin means love,” Pearl Gambler says, recalling the day she gave her daughter her name.
It was the day Sakihitowin was born — and died.
From Bigstone Cree Nation, Gambler entered Edmonton’s Misericordia Hospital on June 11, 2020, and experienced a series of events that she can only characterize as traumatic and discriminatory.
“They really made me feel ‘less than’ as a woman … and my baby,” says Gambler, “it really kills me … how she was treated.”
In October 2022, Gambler’s story made national headlines when she filed a lawsuit against Covenant Health and her obstetrician claiming she and her baby were neglected throughout their stay. The statement of claim, dated Oct. 12 of that same year, alleges a male nurse stood watching Gambler scream for help while she gave birth prematurely.
Read More: https://www.nationalobserver.com/2023/04/11/investigations/anti-indigenous-racism-health-care