Quebec Health Minister Christian Dubé calls the details surrounding the death of an 86-year-old woman in an emergency room last week “disturbing” and “unacceptable”.
TVA Nouvelles first reported the testimony of the family of Gilberte Gosselin, who died in the emergency room of the Hôtel-Dieu de Lévis on February 23.
Relatives say the octogenarian was left for dead in an emergency room hallway and had gone nearly 48 hours without food or drink before she died.
In the office of Minister Dubé, we claim to have asked for explanations from the Integrated Health and Social Services Center (CISSS) of Chaudière-Appalaches, which oversees this hospital in Lévis, on the South Shore of Quebec.
The CISSS said that the hospital was experiencing an overload of patients at that time, both in the emergency room and in the care units.
“We received really sick users, with between 30 and 40 people hospitalized in the emergency room waiting to be taken upstairs and between 48 and 68 patients in total on stretchers during this period. We even opened our overflow beds, ”explained by email the relationist at the CISSS of Chaudière-Appalaches, Mireille Gaudreau.
A coroner has been assigned to investigate the circumstances surrounding Ms. Gosselin’s death. The CISSS said the risk management department and the complaints commissioner would also investigate internally.
In the office of Minister Dubé, it is indicated that the Ministry of Health will also look into the care received by Ms. Gosselin, adding that “situations like this must not occur”.
A “broken” system
Gilberte Gosselin was admitted to Hôtel-Dieu in Lévis for a hip fracture on February 21, her granddaughter, Véronique Labonté, said in an interview Thursday.
Véronique Labonté, who with her mother Sylvie Berthiaume was at her grandmother’s bedside, said Quebec’s health care system is “broken” and patients are paying the price.
She said she wants officials to admit that it’s not normal that her grandmother went through such a situation, and that it shouldn’t have happened and it won’t happen again.
Ms. Berthiaume was traumatized after being left alone with her deceased mother for an hour after her death, Véronique Labonté said.
After undergoing tests at the hospital on February 21, Ms. Gosselin learned that she needed surgery. The next day, her condition had deteriorated to the point that surgery was no longer an option, Véronique Labonté said.
A second doctor, she said, requested that Ms. Gosselin be moved to a room for end-of-life care. But Ms. Gosselin was never transferred, said her granddaughter in an interview.
Instead, Ms. Gosselin remained in the hallway of the emergency room, where she died Thursday morning.
Véronique Labonté said the family asked for food for her grandmother, but were told her condition had deteriorated so badly that she could no longer eat.