British ColumbiaThe family of a Penelakut man is calling for answers after he died unexpectedly in November. Leonard Sylvester, 38, died in hospital a few weeks after routine surgery. His wife says she was not supported by Island Health and believes that this is the latest example of First Nations people being failed by the health-care system. Island Health says it will conduct a review. Island Health will conduct a review after Leonard Sylvester, 38, died in hospital 19 days after surgeryKathryn Marlow · CBC News · Posted: Dec 10, 2025 7:30 PM EST | Last Updated: 8 hours agoListen to this articleEstimated 4 minutesThe audio version of this article is generated by text-to-speech, a technology based on artificial intelligence.Leonard Sylvester, 38, died in Victoria General Hospital on Nov. 20, 2025. (Submitted by Shadae Johnson)Leonard Sylvester died at Victoria General Hospital on Nov. 20 — just 19 days after he’d undergone routine day surgery to remove gallstones.Boedaya Sylvester says her 38-year-old husband should not have died when he did, and is demanding answers from Island Health — which has promised to undertake a review into what happened.Leonard was a member of the Penelakut First Nation and lived in their community on a small island about 30 to 50 minutes away by ferry from Vancouver Island.In the time between Leonard’s gallstone removal and his death, he went to the Cowichan District Hospital in extreme pain, and was transferred an hour away to the Victoria General Hospital where he had his gallbladder removed. Leonard was then admitted into the intensive care unit.Sylvester told CBC News that when Leonard was first admitted to the hospital in Cowichan, he was left in a wheelchair in a hallway for hours. She says that for the first six hours of his admission, he wasn’t given pain medication beyond Tylenol and Advil.She claims she was not kept informed by the hospital about what was happening to her husband while he was alive, nor after his death. When she went to see him after the surgery to remove his gallbladder, Sylvester says she was confused to discover he was no longer in the hospital room he’d been previously assigned. When she inquired at the nurse’s station, Sylvester says she and her six-year-old daughter were led to another room with no explanation. There, she says, she found her husband hooked up to medical equipment, and was told he was on life support.Family suing coroner, Island Health after body of First Nations man returned without brain“I had no call. No one had told me that something had gone wrong in the surgery,” an emotional Sylvester said.Leonard died a few days later, and Sylvester says she had similar difficulties getting information about what happened to his body and whether there would be an autopsy. She says her family only received confirmation of the autopsy two weeks later.She also wonders why Island Health didn’t provide an Indigenous Liaison Nurse — available in hospitals to help Indigenous patients and their families navigate the health-care system — until after her husband died.Island Health representatives attend community rally Since Leonard’s death, Sylvester, her sister, their aunt and other family members have been calling for answers.On Monday, the family held a community rally in Duncan. Three representatives of Island Health attended, and offered their apologies. “No words can express how profoundly sorry I am for his experience, and your experience, through this health system,” said Marko Peljhan, the health authority’s vice president of hospitals.He promised that Island Health will conduct a full review into what happened, and that Sylvester’s family will be included in that work. Investigation finds widespread racism and discrimination against Indigenous peoples in B.C. health-care systemSix years ago, an independent report into anti-Indigenous racism in B.C.’s health-care system found that racism, stereotyping and discrimination against Indigenous people were widespread — and could prove fatal. “Despite our commitment to doing better as a health-care system, we continue to learn how we can improve and we can create better access to care,” Peljhan told the crowd on Monday.He promised Sylvester and her family that Island Health will learn from Leonard’s death.Leonard and Boedaya Sylvester and their children Alecxavier, 15, Silas, 2, and Eleanor, 6. The couple had been together for over a decade, but were married just the month before Leonard’s death. (Submitted by Lisa Seward)Sylvester describes her husband as a man with a “really, really big heart,” who was full of love for their three children, made everyone laugh, and was always there to provide spiritual and cultural support for their community on Penelakut Island. She is frustrated that she felt invisible both before and after his death. She wants her husband’s death to bring change.“I truly want to be able to go into a clinic or a hospital or an office and be treated with the same respect a white woman is treated,” she said. “And it is very rare to meet any nurses or doctors that are like that.”Island Health has not confirmed when the review into Leonard’s death will take place.ABOUT THE AUTHORKathryn Marlow is a reporter for CBC Victoria, and the host/producer of the podcast This is Vancouver Island. She covers stories in greater Victoria, and across the whole Vancouver Island region. You can reach her at kathryn.marlow@cbc.ca. With files from CHEK News
First Nations family demands answers after unexpected death just weeks after routine surgery
