The week had been hellish. The night had been restless. Alain Champagne had managed to sleep for a few hours. His wife Joanne had barely slept.
Posted at 5:00 a.m.
Alain Champagne woke up, unable to go back to sleep.
He got up at 7 a.m., went to see if his daughter was still asleep.
He came back to bed, grabbed his tablet, opened The Presswhich he began to read.
It was Sunday, September 11.
Someone knocked on the condo door.
The week had been hellish. Alain and Joanne have two adult children, Mathieu and Amélie.
At age 15, Amélie began to suffer from bizarre symptoms. Vision problems, balance problems, unexplained and inexplicable suffering…
For years, Amélie consulted specialists.
Multiple sclerosis?
Fibromyalgia?
Remnants of mononucleosis?
For years, no one could identify what afflicted him.
These ailments weighed down Amélie, monopolized her life, even if she persevered in her studies, even if she had plans for life with her boyfriend, even if she remained radiant. Suffering is a full time job. Amélie has developed anxiety disorders. Sleeping was becoming more and more difficult for Amélie.
Last June, the diagnosis was finally found, thanks to blood tests sent to the United States for analysis: babesiosis. Translation: Lyme disease, this infection that is transmitted by the bite of a tick.
Finally, hope, very small, but hope nonetheless. Lyme disease is treatable if properly diagnosed. Perhaps medicine would be able to treat Amélie, give her a new impetus, at 22…
PHOTO PROVIDED BY FAMILY
Amelie Champagne
But Amélie’s head was not going at all. Anxiety gripped her. She was not sleeping.
Tuesday, September 6, Amélie asked her brother Mathieu to make her a noose, he who knows about ropes, since he climbs.
“Why, Amelie?
“I want to hang myself. »
Mathieu alerted his mother and Joanne did neither one nor two: direction the Douglas hospital, with the psychiatric emergencies. There, Amélie saw a psychiatrist for 25 minutes, who prescribed her sleeping pills…
No support for suicidal ideation.
Back home.
Amélie went to sleep. At 2:30 a.m., she left the condo, then she left, on the sly. When Alain and Joanne discovered their daughter’s absence, knowing she was in distress, they called 911.
The police detected Amélie’s cell phone signal in the Eastern Townships, at the family cottage. Alain and Joanne called a neighbor to ask her about Amélie’s state of health…
She wasn’t there.
Alain and Joanne headed for the chalet, in disaster. Texts from the neighbour: we found her sandals and her cell phone, on the wharf…
But no trace of Ame.
Alain and Joanne arrived at the cabin at 9 a.m., convinced that their daughter was dead. Neighbors and the police were on the lake, looking for him…
At 10 a.m., the police found Amélie on the shore of the lake.
Alive.
Amé, who was not drinking, had swallowed a full bottle of gin before attempting to drown. But the body, not fooled, resisted, it did not want to collaborate in the suicidal plan of the exhausted and tormented spirit of Amélie.
When Alain knelt down in front of his daughter, she was confused by his decomposed expression of a terrified father: “Dad, why are you like that? »
Direction the Sherbrooke University Hospital, Hôtel-Dieu pavilion, where Amélie was admitted to the psychiatric emergency room on Wednesday morning.
Alain and Joanne were terrified, but, oddly, reassured: this time, we’re going to believe her; this time, we will take care of it.
After all, Amélie had just come close to death.
The system, they thought, would take care of their daughter.
In the emergency room of the Hôtel-Dieu, Amélie is under observation.
Translation: she is on a stretcher, in a hallway.
There is no bedroom.
They took away his cell phone. She can call her parents, and she calls them: dozens of times, Wednesday and Thursday.
Amélie just wants one thing: to get out of there.
Alain said to him: “Trust me, you’ve come to the right place. »
You don’t understand, Dad, Amélie replies: I’m not well here. There are people in crisis, in psychosis.
For a girl who needed to sleep, let’s say that the psychiatric emergency room of a Quebec hospital is not ideal.
Another call from Amélie: she reports a bad interaction with a psychiatrist, she believes that he was condescending, for no reason.
“Dad, I want to get out of here.
“Trust me, Ame, you’ve come to the right place. »
The staff was generally friendly, when Alain and Joanne could talk to him on the phone, between two calls from Amélie. But Alain wanted to have answers to specific questions: not easy, on the phone. A resident in psychiatry transmitted her questions to a psychiatrist, then returned to give him the doctor’s answers…
Complete care in Sherbrooke, he was told, was not possible: the follow-up must be done in the patient’s postal code of residence…
But I have a chalet in Estrie, replied a stunned Alain, change my daughter’s postal code, and take care of her in Sherbrooke, while waiting for a transfer to Montreal!
Answer: no, not possible. We can transfer her to Montreal, to Notre-Dame Hospital for example, but that can’t be done right away: there’s no room.
And Amé, meanwhile, wanted to leave, in the chaotic environment of psychiatric emergencies, she was going… mad.
Alain remembers being told on the phone that Amélie no longer posed a risk to herself.
Alain, doubtful, remembers having said to the resident, on the telephone: “My daughter has just attempted suicide. You are going to have a death on your conscience. »
Amélie was therefore in the corridor of an emergency room where she was observed, of course, but where she was observed in a turbulent corridor, where each time she managed to fall asleep – and she needed so much to sleep – the surrounding chaos woke her up.
What to do ?
Alain and Joanne went to get Amé, at her request, on Friday evening, September 9th.
“What do you want, Ame?
– Poutine. »
Alain: “We were so happy to see her, to touch her. »
That evening, thanks to contacts, Alain Champagne managed to speak to a psychiatrist at the CHUM. The doctor reassured him, hyperempathic: OK, Monday, I’m going to see her…
Amélie slept at the chalet that night with her parents. The cabin, his favorite place in the world.
But on Saturday morning, she was in a bad mood, as if the last few days had caught up with her: “I can’t believe I missed myself. »
Saturday, during the day, Amélie, Joanne and Alain returned to Montreal, to the condo. Matthew was there. They had supper, the four of them, on the terrace.
Alain asked his two children to get closer. He took them in his arms, told them how much he loved them, how important Amélie and Mathieu were to him:
“I hope, said Alain, that I am a good father.
“There’s nothing clearer in life for me,” replied Amélie.
Alain said how scared he was of losing her. That he didn’t want to lose her.
Amélie reassured him: I’m not going to do it again, Dad.
Alain reminded him: it’s Saturday, Amé, Monday, you’re going to be taken care of at the CHUM.
Alain remembers this evening, invoking two words: hugs and sweet words.
The week had been hellish. The night from Saturday to Sunday, after this evening of hugs and sweet words, had still been hectic for Alain and Joanne.
Joanne got up several times to make sure that Amélie was still in her room.
Alain Champagne woke up around 7 a.m. unable to go back to sleep.
He went to check if his daughter was still sleeping.
Then he came back to bed, grabbed his tablet, opened The Presswhich he began to read.
Around 7:45 a.m., someone knocked on the door of the condo.
Alain got up, went to answer.
Two policewomen were at the door.
“Do you have access to the roof? asked one of them.
Alain went out into the corridor with the policewomen, to look for a door giving access to the roof, with his magnetic card. It wasn’t working.
Alain then asked the officers:
“Why do you want access to the roof?
“There was an incident in Saint-Denis…”
And in the second that followed, Joanne was screaming down the hall, a scream, in fact:
” She is not there ! »
This “incident” that the police had just mentioned, it was Amélie who had thrown herself down from the balcony of 16e stage.
On the road, a sheet was already covering his body.
Monday evening, after writing this column, the office of the Minister for Health and Social Services, Lionel Carmant, contacted The Press to announce the holding of an investigation into the death of Amélie Champagne, to try to understand if the system has failed in its task and, if so, how and why.
Need help ?
If you need support, if you are having suicidal thoughts or if you are worried about someone close to you, contact 1 866 APPELLE (1 866 277-3553). A suicide prevention worker is available to you 24 hours a day, seven days a week.