Health Canada names team to review cases of Manitoba men switched at birth

Health Canada has named the two people who will lead a review team looking into the cases offour men switched at birth in anorthern Manitoba hospital.

They are:

• Dr. David Creery

A pediatric intensive care physician and the medical director of patient safety at the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontarioin Ottawa.He is also an investigating coroner for theCity of Ottawa.

• MauraDavies

The former president and CEO of the Saskatoon Health Region. She has extensive experience in delivery of health services and patient safety.

Additionally, Calvin James Bergen, the family doctor of two of the men, will assistwith the review, Health Canada officials said. They hopethereview will be completeby early 2017.

Luke Monias and Norman Barkmandiscovered throughDNA testing last year that theyended up being raised by each other's parents after being switched shortly after birth at the Norway House Indian Hospital in 1975.

This past summer, DNA tests revealed a similar mix-up involving two other men born at the same hospital in the same year Leon Swanson and DavidTaitJr.

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"We need to understand what should have happened as compared to what did happen and provide a report on those aspects. It's to understand what the standards were at Norway House Hospital and other similar hospitals were in 1975, with the lens of trying to understand how this tragic event could have happened twicein six months," Creerysaid Thursday.

Theywill travel to the community on Tuesday to begin meeting with people.

Creery said he wanted to join the team because the work at theChildren's Hospital of Ontario, investigating adverse events related to healthcare, could be useful here.

He's hopeful the review will bring closure to the families, but there are challenges.

There's the "possibility that this could be a broader problem than what we've identified, so that's one of the things we have to decide, could other people have been affected by this," Creery said.

"It's particularly challenging doing a review that's this far in the past, you know more than 40 years ago, so finding some of the key people to speak to is going to be a challenge but we'll leave no stone unturned," he said.

• Manitoba men weep after learning they were switched at birth 41 years ago
• Second switched-at-birth case discovered at Norway House

Federal Health Minister Jane Philpott, who met with three of the men and their families earlier this week in Winnipeg, called the mix-ups appalling.

In addition to Health Canada's review of what happened, the RCMP is investigating.

• Federal health minister has emotional meeting with men switched at birth
• RCMP investigating 2 switched-at-birth cases at Norway House hospital

"The department takes this issue very seriously and is committed to supporting the individuals and families affected by these traumatic events," said a statement released by Health Canada on Thursday.

"While the RCMP's activities are separate from Health Canada's review, the department will fully co-operate with this investigation."

The review team will examine hospital records and contact individuals who were involved at that time in an effort to "clarify the circumstances of the known cases," the Health Canada statement says, adding the results will be made public.