Thief allegedly stole from patients in cystic fibrosis ward at St. Paul's Hospital
Credit to Author: Tiffany Crawford| Date: Thu, 21 Nov 2019 21:18:42 +0000
Jennifer Wright was sleeping after a medical procedure at the cystic fibrosis clinic at St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver earlier this month when someone stole her belongings.
It’s stressful enough to be in the hospital but to have your bag stolen while you’re ill is really low, said Wright, who has cystic fibrosis, a genetic disease that affects the lungs and digestive system. CF patients sometimes spend long periods of time in hospital.
Wright, 41, a former classical ballet dancer, said she was sleeping after a procedure sometime between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. on Nov. 7 when her bag with her wallet and some food she had brought to eat was stolen from the chair right beside her bed.
Jennifer Wright, a former ballet dancer with cystic fibrosis, was in hospital for a medical procedure when a someone entered the CF ward at St. Paul’s Hospital and stole her bag with her wallet. The woman later allegedly used her card in the hospital gift shop.
When she realized her wallet had been stolen she called the bank and was informed that one of her credit cards had been used in the hospital gift shop. With the help of a friend who volunteers at the hospital she was able to watch the surveillance video from the shop. She then posted stills of the woman on Facebook. The young woman was seen on the security camera allegedly using Wright’s stolen credit card.
“On the tape, the (alleged) thief takes my credit card out of her bra, so she had most likely ditched my wallet already,” she said.
Vancouver police spokesman Sgt. Steve Addison confirmed that a theft was reported on Nov. 7 from a patient at St. Paul’s. The incident is under investigation and no arrests have been made, he said Thursday. Addison also said police were aware of the surveillance-video photos that Wright posted on Facebook of the suspect.
Wright alleges the woman was with her boyfriend, an outpatient, and they were stealing from patients in the cystic fibrosis clinic, an area meant only for doctors and CF patients, some of whom are recovering from serious chest infections, which may include pneumonia.
Wright says at one point the pair was caught trying to come back into the CF clinic, but they ran down the stairs. She said a security guard caught up with them and asked the woman to dump out her bag to search for Wright’s wallet. However, because they didn’t see the wallet, they had to let them go, she said.
Security told Wright there were multiple expensive sunglasses and headphones in the bag, which they deemed suspicious, she said. She also said that a student doing a medical residency also told her he had items stolen from the hospital that same day.
Wright was living in Australia from 2011-17, and said physical fitness from the ballet helped her stay healthy living with cystic fibrosis. However, she says because of her CF the government turned down her application for a visa and told her to leave the country. The stress of leaving her job and starting over in Vancouver has caused her CF to “go downhill,” she said.
She said stealing from hospital patients is awful and hopes the police find the person responsible.
“I feel that anyone who steals from patients at a hospital is probably not a good person. You would have to lack a sense of morals, or values, or be super desperate, or possibly on drugs to steal from people who are so vulnerable and in such a sad situation that they have to be in hospital for treatments in the first place,” she said. “It makes me very angry that this happened and not just to myself, but to other patients and also a medical student in the CF ward.”
She said it would be good if the hospital could provide a locked drawer beside the beds so patients could keep their possessions safe.
Ann Gibbon, a spokeswoman for Providence Health Care, which operates St. Paul’s, said she can’t comment on specific cases, but said they have “robust security measures” in place.
“That said, St. Paul’s is a busy downtown hospital that is open to the public, so security can be challenging at times,” she said.
She didn’t have figures on the number of thefts per year, but said they don’t get that many complaints about stolen items. Gibbon said patients are asked to be careful with personal items and to avoid bringing valuables to the hospital. Patients can also ask for their belongings to be locked up, she added.
Anyone with information about the person in the surveillance photo posted by Wright can call the VPD or CrimeStoppers.
Jennifer Wright, a former ballet dancer with cystic fibrosis, was in hospital for a medical procedure when a someone entered the CF ward at St. Paul’s Hospital and stole her bag with her wallet. The woman later allegedly used her card in the hospital gift shop.
Thefts at St. Paul’s have been a problem in the past. Last year, an Albertan woman told Postmedia News she had her car broken into three times while she was visiting her dying brother.