The family of a Point St. Charles woman has filed a complaint with St. Luc Hospital after she died there while waiting for six hours in the ER without ever seeing a doctor.
Therese de Repentigny, 78, went to the hospital Tuesday evening complaining she was in pain. Seen by a triage nurse, de Repentigny was told to wait.
"No one came. The entire night was spent that way," said daughter Fernande Blais, who waiting with her mother.
On a stretcher, de Repentigny got up repeatedly, asking to see a doctor, and each time was told to wait longer, said Blais.
Blood tests and an ultrasound were ordered just before midnight, and de Repentigny said she had to go to the washroom before the test.
"She said, ‘Fernande, I really don't feel well.' And then she fell," said Blais, who said her mother grabbed the wall and collapsed.
Blais called for help, finally leaving her elderly mother on the floor to seek out a doctor.
Staff treated her and moments later sought out Blais, asking for her mother's last wishes, which is how she realized her mother had died.
Her exact cause of death has not been confirmed and is pending an autopsy.
No one from St. Luc Hospital was available to comment Tuesday on the death of Therese de Repentigny, and her family said no one has contacted them with an explanation or condolences.
Daughter not told mother had died
Daughter Johanne Blais said she was shocked when, after arriving from Magog to visit her ailing mother, was shown to a room where her body was being kept. No one had told her she was dead.
"I stroked her hair, and when I approached her to kiss her, I realized she felt cold," she said.
ER overcrowding a chronic problem: patients' right advocate
Most people admitted to hospital are treated well but chronic overcrowding makes it difficult for patients who need help to be seen, said Paul Brunet, director general of patients' advocacy group Conseil pour la protection des malades.
"Why and how was that lady selected to wait that amount of time?" he said.
