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WINNIPEG — Robert Sinclair feels the weight of his family’s history when he has no choice but to go to an emergency room in Winnipeg.

He feels anxious, uncertain and sometimes angry.

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A few years ago, he had a serious accident with a chainsaw in the woods and was taken to Winnipeg’s Health Sciences Centre. He figures his name must known at the hospital because the care came immediately.

“I hit that little button, it’s like they were standing at the door or something,” he said. “They probably didn’t want another Sinclair dying in their hospital.”

It was a Friday afternoon 10 years ago when Robert’s cousin, Brian Sinclair visited the same emergency room.

Photo by MAURICE BRUNEAU/FOR THE WINNIPEG SUN

The 45-year-old had been in a wheelchair since he lost his legs to frostbite in 2007. After a visit to his community clinic that Friday, he was given a letter from his doctor and told to go to the Health Science Centre’s emergency room to have his blocked catheter changed.