The gathering to say goodbye to Mireille Ndjomouo was small because of COVID-19 restrictions.
But those who did showed up at the Notre-Dame-d’Afrique church d’Orléans Street for her funeral Sunday, despite a heavy rain, are still hurting.
“It was very difficult, a very difficult moment,” admitted Wilfried Fami, Ndjomouo’s brother-in-law, on his way into the church.
It’s been nearly a month since Ndjomouo died and her loved ones say they are still angry and puzzled how she could’ve been taken so young.
“We did not expect something like this to happen now,” Fami told Global News. “The family was really in shock, but we praying that we will go through it.”
Ndjomouo got the public’s attention when she posted a mobile phone video of herself on social media calling for help while she was a patient at the Charles-le-Moyne hospital in Greenfield Park south of Montreal. In the video, she claimed she told doctors she was allergic to penicillin and alleges that she was given the drug anyway. She also said she was having trouble breathing and that she feared for her life.
Days later, Ndjomouo died after she was transferred to the Jewish General Hospital. At her funeral, her loved ones are still demanding answers.
“You’re supposed to be at a hospital to get help treatment,” said pallbearer Yves Mbattang, Ndjomouo’s brother-in-law’s cousin. “If she didn’t have her cell phone, imagine what would have happened.”
The case is raising more questions now that another family is also demanding answers following a death at another Montreal-area hospital. Candida Macarine’s body was found in early February at the Lakeshore Hospital and her family says they still have no idea what happened. Both they and the health board overseeing that hospital are calling for a coroner’s inquest.
Both deaths follow that of Joyce Echaquan, who also made a video of herself shortly before dying at a Joliette hospital in September, 2020.
“These are situations that should not happen to anyone, and that we must denounce them,” said Josée Ida-Schwartz, who showed up at the church to drop flowers off before the funeral.
The Quebec coroner is investigating Ndjomouo’s death. Those who knew the mother of three remember her as someone who always looked out for others.
“She’s a woman of heart,” noted family friend Muna Mingole. “She’s a woman who had a lot of hopes. She came here to get a better life for her children, so we can all relate.”
Family and friends are trying to raise money to support her kids and to repatriate her body to Cameroon, for her final rest.
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