B.C.'s Fraser Health Authority is investigating why staff at a seniors care facility made the "terribly unfortunate human error" of cutting the beard off an elderly Sikh patient, the second time such an incident has occurred in the past two years.
A nurse cut the man's beard out of what she thought was medical necessity, according to David Plug, Fraser Health's vice-president of communications.
"The nurse thought that she had more consent than she actually did from the family," Plug said. "It was a terribly unfortunate human error."
Unshorn hair and beards are one of the five articles of faith for baptized Sikhs.
The controversy prompted Fraser Health Authority CEO Nigel Murray to appear on a Punjabi-language radio station Wednesday to apologize.
"We just wanted to reassure the wider Sikh community that we believe it was an unfortunate mistake," Murray said.
The elderly man died last week. His identity and the cause of his death have not been made public.
Similar incident in 2008
Plug said Fraser Health apologized to the man and his family immediately after the incident occurred earlier in March, while the man was still alive.
Fraser Health is one of the largest authorities in B.C., with responsibility for the 1.5 million people in communities stretching from Burnaby to Hope, which includes the highly concentrated Sikh populations in the city of Surrey and the Fraser Valley.
In 2008, Fraser Health took system-wide steps to educate staff about cultural sensitivities after a nurse at Royal Columbian Hospital cut the beard of a 70-year-old Sikh man in intensive care.
Since that incident, executive directors at all clinical facilities have been given information about the Sikh religion.
Plug said the nurse involved in the latest beard-cutting incident had been on the job for six months. It was not known whether she had been briefed on the significance of hair and beards to Sikhs.
Fraser Health will hold more formal education sessions about the issue at all its senior facilities, Plug said.
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