ST-HYACINTHE - More than 50 victims of a C. difficile outbreak at Honoré-Mercier Hospital five years ago – including the families of 16 people who died – will split a $1 million settlement of a class action law suit.
For the families of those who died, the compensation would be in the range of $25,000 to $50,000, said lawyer Jean-Pierre Ménard.
A coroner's report investigating the deaths between May and November of 2006 was scathing - hands insufficiently washed, rooms improperly disinfected and a serious lack of health and safety guidelines were prevalent at the hospital according to the report.
"Everything that could lack, was lacking here," Ménard said. "Everything that could be mismanaged was mismanaged here."
Honoré-Mercier Hospital officials say things have changed since 2006.
"We work in a totally different manner," said spokesman Claude Dallaire. "We take a lot more precautions and now we have teams to control the spread of infection."
This is the first time in Quebec history people who contracted C. difficile in a hospital were compensated financially.
Were it not for the coroner's report, the case may never have gotten this far because proving culpability is difficult.
For Sylvie Dorion, who spearheaded the class action suit, this settlement puts an end to a long, three-year journey.
Dorion's sister Marie-Andrée was one of the 16 people who died five years ago after the outbreak at the hospital, and the pain of that loss clearly remains.
"My sister was my mother, my friend, my sister," Dorion said. "Oh, I miss her very, very much. I miss her every day."
The suit was more a matter of principal for Dorion, because doing nothing simply wasn't an option.
"I see my sister is looking at me," she said, "and saying it's done now, you can turn the page."
