Murder victim's dying words should never have been kept from family, ethics expert says

More should have been done to let a dying woman's family know her final words, says an expert in ethics and law.

Earlier this week. a coroners inquest heard how Lisa Dudley asked a paramedic to tell her parents "she was sorry" and her mother "that she loved her" as she lay dying, the victim of a targeted shooting.

But it took 10 years for paramedic Peter Smith to pass on that message to her parents.

At the inquest in Burnaby, B.C., on Tuesday, Smith testified that a supervisor told him in 2008 to never repeat the words to anyone.

Retired York University public policy professor Ian Greene says in cases like these, more careful consideration is required when such decisions are made.

"I think the advice of not telling her parents her dying words is overly cautious," said Greene on Thursday morning.

"When you have at stake a person's dying words, you have to get more people involved in terms of what is the best thing to do."

Shot and left for dead

Dudley had been shot and left for dead along with her boyfriend Guthrie McKay in a targeted shooting at their illegal grow-op in Mission, B.C., in 2008.  

Four men were eventually charged and convicted in the killings. But questions remained about why it took for police four days to discover the crime scene, leading to the inquest this week.

When Dudley was discovered in her home she had been stuck paralyzed in a chair for four days. She died en route to the hospital.

On Tuesday, Smith finally delivered Dudley's dying message to her parents — and they want to know why they weren't told sooner.

"I'm so angry that we have a police force that is so cold and callous that they would try and keep me from something like that," Dudley's mother Rosemarie Surakka said earlier this week.

No policy on dying words

B.C. Emergency Health Services and the paramedics union both say there's no policy about how or when —or even if — a person's dying words should be passed along.

Cameron Eby, president of the Ambulance Paramedics of B.C. union, says each situation is unique.

"I do know that obviously the situation being dealt with in this case was a crime scene and sometimes there are considerations around the integrity of an investigation."

But Greene says legal experts need to be consulted in cases like this.

"I think people who don't have a legal background, they tend to be very cautious because they can get into trouble if they do the wrong thing," Greene said.

"It really should have been checked with higher authorities. If there is only a one-in-a-million chance that this might harm the evidence at trial, the other priority is more important.

"You really have to show compassion and respect to the families."

Paramedic struggled with secret

Dudley's parents were not the only ones affected by the decision not to pass on her dying words.

The paramedic who kept them secret for 10 years also suffered, according to Eby.

Eby says he know Smith personally and "he's struggling with this and it takes a tremendous emotional toll."

Smith testified that he regretted not being able to share Dudley's words sooner, saying: "I felt horrible that I've never been allowed to say it."

Dudley's family said they appreciate Smith's words.

"We had a really good chat in the hallway," Surakka said outside the inquest earlier this week.

"I felt like he was almost kin because he knew what I was going through because he goes through stuff like that all the time with different people."

Eby says in recent years there has been new training for paramedics to deal with death and dying.

"It gives the paramedic better tools in how to deal with that situation both in the moment and after the fact," he said.