‘Carter didn’t have to die’: Vancouver Island family speaks out against hospital after death of 9-year-old boy

On Aug. 17, 2019, nine-year-old Carter Bonsdorf was playing in the water at the family cabin on Cowichan Lake with his younger brother Declan, who was swimming for the first time.

Their mother, Tanisha Bonsdorf, captured the happy moment with a photo of her two boys. But her memories of that carefree afternoon are now suffused with sorrow.

Thirty minutes after the photo was taken, Carter began to complain of stomach pain. Within a week, he was dead.

Tanisha and Carter’s grandfather, Logan McMenamie, the former Anglican bishop of Vancouver Island, are coming forward now, sharing Carter’s story in the hope of preventing other families from experiencing the grief they have endured.

It’s a story, they charge, of racism, medical incompetence, failed communication and failure to follow up on a radiologist’s X-ray report noting a possible bowel obstruction.