The family of Joyce Echaquan, this Atikamek mother who lost her life two years ago to racist insults from a nurse at the Joliette hospital, is filing a lawsuit for 2.67 million against the Regional Hospital Center from Lanaudière, Dr. Jasmine Thanh and nurse Paule Rocray.
At a press briefing Thursday morning in Montreal, the attorney representing the family, Mr.e Patrick Martin-Ménard, declared that “Joyce’s family experienced enormous damage following his death” and that the “circumstances [entourant sa mort] aggravated the harm suffered.
Eleven family members of the deceased are part of the lawsuit: her widower Carol, her seven children, her mother Diane, her late father Michel and her sister-in-law Jemima Dubé.
“I am still very lost. It’s a new chapter, ”said her husband Carol in a press briefing, with her head bowed. “It is difficult today to live that. But we want justice to be done for my daughter, for Joyce, ”added Diane Dubé in Atikamekw.
According to the procedure filed in the Superior Court, the DD Jasmine Thanh was Joyce Echaquan’s attending physician on the day of her death, September 28, 2020. “She neglected to investigate and assess Ms.me Echaquan in accordance with the rules of the art […] “, it is alleged.
As for the nurse Paule Rocray, it is argued that she “wrongfully and negligently omitted to help Mrs.me Echaquan”, especially after the latter fell to the ground. It is also alleged that Paule Rocray “made derogatory remarks of a racist nature and full of prejudice towards Ms.me Echaquan […] “.
The “faults” of Jasmine Thanh and Paule Rocray “caused the premature death of Mme Echaquan under unacceptable conditions,” the civil liability lawsuit reads.
The lawsuit also cites the many red flags that were raised in 2017-18 during the Viens Commission hearings. Several members of the Atikamek community of Manawan had then testified to the mistreatment suffered at the Joliette hospital.
According to the procedure, the management of the CISSS de Lanaudière and its former president and general manager, Daniel Castonguay, failed “wrongfully and negligently to take the measures required to put an end to its systemic violations of the fundamental rights of this community”.
Insults
On September 28, 2020, Joyce Echaquan had broadcast a live video on Facebook in which nurse Paule Rocray was heard calling her “hos *** thick tab ***”.
“Well better for the f****** than anything else.” Especially since it’s the rest of us who pay for that, “she also said, just like:” it’s better dead, that “.
In September 2021, Paule Rocray was struck off for one year by her professional order. The nurse – who has 33 years of experience – had admitted having verbally abused Joyce Echaquan and having been negligent in the care she had given her.
In her report filed last October on the death of the mother of seven children, coroner Géhane Kamel concluded that the death of Joyce Echaquan was accidental. The 37-year-old lady died of pulmonary edema, established the coroner, but also “possibly deleterious maneuvers” and “racism and [des] prejudices” that the patient faced at the Joliette hospital.
More details will follow.