A coroner's inquest has begun into the death of Sidney McIntyre-Starko, an 18-year-old who died of fentanyl poisoning in a UVic dorm room in January 2024, A jury will hear from witnesses to determine the facts surrounding her death, and make recommendations to prevent similar deaths in the future.
Records published by UVic revealed that on Jan. 23, 2024, McIntyre-Starko and another student collapsed onto their dorm floor after they were exposed to fentanyl. A third student who was also impaired managed to call 911 and tell an operator they needed emergency help. It took more than seven minutes to dispatch paramedics, according to the records.
The first day of the inquest heard testimony from Dr. Caroline McIntyre, Sidney's mother, and other students who were at the scene, including those who were also impaired.
During the second day of the inquest, Tuesday, April 29, the jury heard a recording of the 911 call one of the students made, and from four other students, including Kyra Herriott, who was present at the scene.
The 15-minute call began with a student, whose name is protected by a publication ban, telling the call taker, Kylie Alfano, that two of her friends were having seizures.
"They walked in and then they started just ... to pass out on the floor and I think they started seizing," the caller said.
Alfano asked the caller to do a breath diagnostic exercise to determine if there were any irregularities in their breathing, before the phone was passed to a security guard who had just arrived at the scene almost 10 minutes after Alfano received the call.
The security guard told Alfano that he did not know if they had taken any drugs, however, he was instructed to provide naloxone to the patients just before one of them, who was named by the security guard as Sidney, stopped breathing.
About one minute after they realized McIntyre-Starko stopped breathing and lost her pulse, firefighters arrived on scene and the call was disconnected.
In her testimony, Herriott described eating dinner with other students in a dorm room a few doors down when they heard commotion in the hallway.
"When we started to hear laboured breathing, I went out into the hallway because I was closest to the door," she said. "I went into the hallway and [a student] was holding [another student, who had overdosed], by the arms and looked up at me, and [the student] was unconscious. That's where the laboured breathing was coming from, and she was sort of shaking a little bit."
After bringing the student to the dorm room, where McIntyre-Starko was already lying on the ground, other students called campus security and 911.
"They had both started to turn blue before campus security got there. "[The unnamed student] was sort of foaming at the mouth and [another student] had brought a pillow to put under her head at that point. She was still shaking. Her eyes were rolled back. I did check her pulse on her wrist at one point and didn't feel [it], and that was before campus security got there," she said.
She witnessed the unnamed student eventually regain consciousness and speak with paramedics after receiving a dose of Naloxone, however, paramedics continued to do CPR on McIntyre-Starko before she was taken to hospital.
McIntyre-Starko was a first-year general sciences student who loved to play board games with family, read fantasy books, and craft and build furniture, according to a website set up by her family. Her loved ones say her death was a preventable incident while calling for a coroner's inquest, saying their daughter died after a delay in administering naloxone and starting CPR.
The inquest is expected to come to an end in mid-May.
