There will be a coroner’s inquest into the fate of the seven-month-old girl from Manawan who died in early April at the CHU Sainte-Justine after having to travel hundreds of kilometers in an ambulance.
“An investigation is underway to shed light on the cause and circumstances of this death,” Coroner’s Office spokesman Jake Lamotta Granato confirmed Monday. “At the end of his investigation, the coroner will write a detailed report in which he sets out the identity of the deceased person, the date and place of his death, as well as the causes and circumstances which led to the death. If he deems it appropriate, he can also make recommendations aimed at avoiding similar deaths. »
The death of the child has once again brought to light the lack of health services and paramedics in Manawan.
The personnel being insufficient in this Atikamekw community, it was an ambulance from Saint-Michel-des-Saints — a municipality of Lanaudière separated from Manawan by 88 km of bumpy road — which was dispatched to the community after the call of April 2 emergency. The girl was then transported to Joliette, a three-hour drive, then to the CHU Sainte-Justine, in Montreal.
According to a family member, whose anonymity has been kept to protect the identity of the girl, the latter died of bacterial meningitis. She was placed on life support over the weekend, then lost her life on Monday April 4.
Manawan, a community of about 2,000 people located in Lanaudière, is about 200 kilometers west of La Tuque and equidistant north of Joliette. Its population campaigned for 20 years to obtain ambulance services, which the Quebec government finally granted them in 2018.
In 2009, the drowning death of a two-year-old child from the community, Jaylia Jacob, was also the subject of a coroner’s inquest. It then took six and a half hours before the girl could be admitted to a Montreal hospital.
At the time, coroner Jean Brochu had suggested “thinking about ways to reduce” ambulance delays, specifying however that he was not “certain” that reducing them could have improved the chances of survival for the victim. child.