Family of Montreal woman who died at Lakeshore Hospital demands answers

Family members say their demands to learn more about the cause of death of Candida Macarine, an 86-year-old mother and grandmother aren’t being answered.

The Filipino was admitted to the Lakeshore General Hospital on February 26 with respiratory problems. A day later she was found dead and hospital officials said she died of cardiac arrest.

But the family later learned that the elderly woman’s body was found cold lying on the floor next to her hospital bed.

One month after their mother’s death, her children called for a coroner’s inquiry.

At the time, the West Island regional health board also asked the coroner’s office to investigate. The board also apologized, saying “its communications with the family were incomplete, especially at the time of the announcement of the death.”

But now one month after the coroner’s office confirmed it would investigate, the family still has no news. “We want to know the truth, we want justice,” Emmanuel Macarine, her son, told Global News.

READ MORE: Health officials accept family’s demand as coroner to probe woman’s death in Montreal hospital

Global News reached out to the coroner’s office to learn about the inquiry’s progress.  A spokesperson for the coroner wrote, “It is difficult to predict when the report will be released,” adding, “It often depends on the time it takes to obtain documents produced by other organizations,” spokesperson Jake Lamotta Granato wrote.

The CEO of the West Island Health Board, which oversees the Lakeshore Hospital, has agreed to meet with the family members, but the children rejected the offer. “We reiterate our wish to meet with the family,” the CIUSSS wrote on Thursday.

“That time frame that they give us is only for thirty minutes. So what are we going to do for that thirty minutes?” Gilda Macarine told Global News.

The family is demanding that the premier intervene. Premier Legault’s office told Global News that “the Coroner’s office is an independent body and it conducts inquiries without political interference.” A spokesperson for the premier continued “we hope they find the answers to their questions.

The hospital is also conducting an internal review.