The Vancouver Coastal Health Authority is being sued over the death of a Canadian senator’s son whose body was found on the grounds of Vancouver General Hospital, four days after he went missing from involuntary psychiatric care.

The lawsuit accuses the health authority and medical staff of negligence in the November 2023 death of musician Benjamin Marks Woo whose mother says she had warned staff that he posed a risk of suicide and drug overdose.

Woo’s father is Sen. Yuen Pau Woo and his mother is Dr. Patricia McAvity, who is suing the authority for damages in the lawsuit filed in B.C. Supreme Court on Monday.

McAvity’s civil claim says her son had suffered mental illness for about 10 years, and he was committed as an “involuntary patient” at VGH in August 2023.

It says Woo, who was 32

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