By Doug Draper
The provincial government will provide funding to the family of Reilly Anzovino to participate in an inquest into the circumstances surrounding the Fort Erie teen’s death.
Reilly Anzovino
“I am pleased to announce that Reilly’s family (her mother Denise Kennedy) will have provincial assistance in the upcoming coroner’s inquiry into the tragic death of her daughter on Boxing Day of 2009,” said Niagara Falls MPP Kim Craitor in a February 9.
Reilly, an 18-year-old college student home for the Christmas holidays, died after the car she was a passenger in was involved in a collision on Hwy. 3 near the boundaries for Fort Erie and Port Colborne. Her family and many others in the community wonder if she might still be alive today had the emergency rooms at the Fort Erie and Port Colborne hospitals not been closed earlier that year, making it necessary to ambulance her further a field to the ER at a hospital site in Welland.
Widespread community upset and concern over Reilly’s death and the closing of the Fort Erie and Port Colborne ERs by the Niagara Health System, the board responsible for managing a majority of the region’s hospital services, translated into calls for an inquest which the province’s chief coroner, Dr. Andrew McCallum, agreed to hold in the community sometime later this year.
Reilly’s mother Denise told Niagara At Large in interviews last year that the family feels it is important to participate in the inquest if there is any chance it could lead to changes in hospital services that prevent further like the one her family has suffered.
However, participation in the inquest could cost the family tens-of-thousands of dollars in legal fees and south Niagara community groups like the Yellow Shirt Brigade have been working to raise money to pay those fees while Craitor made pitches to the Liberal government he is a member of for financial relief.
Word that Craitor’s efforts were successful came in a recent letter from Jim Bradley, St. Catharines’ MPP and the province’s minister of community safety and correctional services. “Following a review of the unique circumstances of this matter, I have instructed officials at the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services to assist the Anzovino family with their legal fees so that they can be represented by legal counsel at the inquest.”
“Thank you for bringing your concerns to my attention,” Bradley told Craitor in his letter, “and please pass my heartfelt condolences to Reilly’s family.”
A date for the inquest has yet to be set.
(Visit Niagara At Large at www.niagaraatlarge.com for more news and commentary on matters of interest and concern to residents in our greater Niagara region.)
Niagara At Large 
Let us hope that this inquest leads to recommendations for a safer emergency system in Niagara.
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Kim Craitor has been a relentless advocate to obtain funding for the Anzovino family and to answer the repeated questions asked,,,Would there have been a different outcome if closer Emergency care was possible? The family and the Community deserve this answer.
This issue transends political implications and party lines. Support has been received from many politicians from every party and we thank those who are determined to “Do the Right Thing”
The Anzovino family is one of many whose lives have been negatively impacted by the two Emergency Room closures. A recent report shows that our overflows are reaching as far as Hamilton.
There is determination that before another tragic Inquest must be held and another family grieve a loss, that the access to Emergency Care for the Southern Tier must be reviewed . The Hospital “Improvement” Plan may questionably be addressing some budget issues but it has been of no “Improvement ” to Quality of Care as advertised.
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