The family of a Montreal woman who died after waiting six hours in the emergency ward of St-Luc Hospital is filing a complaint against the hospital
Thérèse de Repentigny, 78, died at the hospital last Tuesday.
Her daughter, Fernande Blais, was with de Repentigny in the emergency room and said hospital staff ignored her, despite her complaints of severe stomach pain.
After the initial triage assessment, Blais said, her mother waited six hours without anyone from the hospital checking her condition, during which time her pain became unbearable.
Blais said her mother asked for medicine to help ease the pain but was told to wait her turn. Not long after that, she was pronounced dead.
A shocked Blais said that what made it even harder was that someone from the hospital told her that if her mother had received treatment earlier, she might still be alive. Blais said the family is considering taking legal action.
Hospital spokeswoman Lucie Dufresne said an internal investigation is underway.
"What the ombudsman is going to do will help understand exactly what happened, but that person has 45 days to do the report, and we have to wait on that report," Dufresne said.
The specific cause of de Repentigny's death isn't known, but an autopsy report is expected to be made public Tuesday.
