The Quebec coroner’s office is looking into the death of a 44-year-old woman who died just days after posting a distress video from her bed at Charles-Le Moyne Hospital on Montreal’s south shore.
In the video circulating widely on social media, Mireille Ndjomouo, a mother of three originally from Cameroon, begs for the public’s help, saying doctors and nurses were not listening to her.
“They want to kill me,” she says in the video. “Please help me get out of this hospital.”
In the video, she claims she told doctors she had an allergy to penicillin, and they gave her penicillin. Her face and lips appear to be swollen in the video. She says she has pain all over and is having trouble breathing.
“According to what she’s saying, essentially the doctors are not taking her complaints into account and are refusing to respect her wish to be transferred to a different hospital. That in itself is highly concerning,” said Patrick Martin-Menard, a medical malpractice lawyer not linked to the case.
Pierre-Marc Ngamaleu, a Cameroonian Montrealer and the president of the Young Cameroonian Chamber of Commerce of Canada, said “it’s shocking, it’s upsetting.”
Ndjomouo’s video was circulating widely on social media Sunday morning, and when Ngamaleu saw it, he and others rushed to the hospital to try to help.
He says after several hours of desperate negotiations, officials finally agreed to transfer Ndjomouo to the Jewish General Hospital in Montreal, where she died two days later.
“There are many questions without answers,” Ngamaleu told Global News.
He wants to know if staff at Charles-Le Moyne Hospital followed all proper protocols.
“Definitely an investigation is absolutely necessary to get to the bottom of this,” said Martin-Menard.
The CISSS de la Montérégie-Centre, the health authority that oversees Charles-Le Moyne, said it is “examining the situation.”
The Quebec coroner’s office confirmed it has opened an inquiry to uncover the cause of Ndjomouo’s death and the circumstances surrounding it.
The Jewish General Hospital refused to comment on her death, citing patient confidentiality.
Ngamaleu said the case made him think of what happened to Joyce Echaquan, an Indigenous woman who died in a Quebec hospital after recording a video showing health-care workers verbally abusing her. At this stage, he thinks what happened to Ndjomouo is more of a case of negligence than racism, however.
He said a protest is planned for Saturday afternoon outside Charles-Le Moyne hospital, where community members will express their anger about what happened to Ndjomouo.
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